Date: 11/24/25 6:11 am From: Nancy L Newfield via groups.io <nancy...> Subject: Re: [labird] Fewer birds?
Sandra,
I doubt that bird flu is the answer, or not entirely. Bird flu would
affect different types of birds differently. Birds that flock closely
together would spread it and we would be finding dead birds in our yards or
see them dead around the neighborhood. Hummingbirds should not be affected
because they are so anti-social. I had 2 sightings of a Buff-bellied last
week in spite of having a really good hummer garden this year. My last
southwardly migrating Ruby-throated was 19 October. Usually, I continue to
attract some tardy migrants into late October, if not November.
NLN
On Mon, Nov 24, 2025 at 6:58 AM Sandra Barbier <sandabar10...> wrote:
> Thanks for answering. Flu may be it. I also read a little on the net and
> it said birds don't use feeders as much when there is plentiful food in the
> wild, which led me to think about our lack of hurricanes this year, and
> whether that left more food for them in forests, etc., but we didn't have
> any hurricanes last year, either, in southeast or southwest Louisiana and I
> don't think you are affected by hurricanes very often in Shreveport. Also,
> would that explain their near total absence from yards as a whole? I was
> moved to ask the question because the man in Crowley notices his birds and
> is conscientious about feeding them, and he was concerned. The feeders
> aren't touched and he has found a couple of dead birds. He has frozen them
> but he doesn't know how or where to send them. His opinion is they don't
> use the rice fields so they are not being poisoned there. I haven't fed or
> watched birds in my yard for months, so I can't say for certain if they are
> here or not. I put out seed for squirrels. Could they be a problem? When I
> do look out late in the day there may be the mockingbird and a dove or once
> in a while a cardinal, wren or blue jay. I sometimes see a house sparrow. I
> did see a phoebe a couple of times just in the past two weeks. And Nan, I
> did see two hummingbirds in late October when I had some Turk's cap. My
> yard here in LaPlace has never been very birdy, not like it was in Marrero,
> except for goldfinches in winter five-ten years ago. I also used to have
> dogs, but now occasionally a cat wanders through or skulks awhile. For me,
> what's missing are small flocks of doves, chickadees, house finches, black
> birds and lots of grackles.
>
> On Sun, Nov 23, 2025 at 8:04 PM Nancy L Newfield <nancy...>
> wrote:
>
>> Sandra et al,
>>
>> I'm glad you brought this up. Here in suburban Metairie, the showing of
>> birds has been the worst I've ever seen. Since moving to the New Orleans
>> area in 1970, I've kept mostly regular handwritten notes on the avian
>> activity that I experience. There are about 45 notebooks, plus 4 looseleaf
>> binders and more recently just checklists that I have created for daily use
>> and different ones for banding trips. The quality of the notes varies, but
>> I've aspired to be as accurate as possible, following guidelines that I
>> learned from a couple of birding courses that I took years ago, and from a
>> paper that Van Remsen published way back when.
>>
>> Now that we have eBird, I've worked at transcribing much of those notes
>> into eBird and have noticed a few other times when avian traffic was really
>> slow, but nothing like the dearth of birds at this time. Today, I've
>> counted 35 individual birds of 8 species. There was 1 small flock of 8
>> American Robins, the first I've seen here since November 2023. The
>> demographics and housing have changed a few times over my tenure at this
>> location, and never for the better, but we do still have some nice trees
>> and my hummer garden has been '*primo*', with only 1 recent hummer that
>> I saw twice.
>>
>> The birds are not here.
>>
>> NLN
>>
>> On Sun, Nov 23, 2025 at 6:01 PM Sandra Barbier via groups.io <sandabar10=
>> <gmail.com...> wrote:
>>
>>> Someone I know in Crowley says he has not seen any birds in his yard
>>> recently. I think he means migrants and locals. Has anyone else noticed
>>> this and if so, do you know why it may be? I am thinking drought, maybe.
>>> Found this recent map of drought Louisiana Drought Deepens: 43% of State
>>> Now Affected — Louisiana Farm Bureau News
>>> <
>>> https://lafarmbureaunews.com/news/2025/11/20/louisiana-drought-deepens-43-of-state-now-affected >>> >
>>> that
>>> shows he is in an area marked "severe drought." Thanks.--
>>>
>>> Sandra Barbier
>>> LaPlace, LA
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> --
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> Nancy L Newfield
>> Casa Colibrí
>> Metairie, Louisiana USA
>> <nancy...>
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>
>
>
> --
> Sandra Barbier
> LaPlace, LA
>
>
>
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nancy L Newfield
Casa Colibrí
Metairie, Louisiana USA
<nancy...>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
