Why haven't the birds flown south for winter this year?
- Thread starter Ladicius
- Start date
because humans keep feeding them. I put suet cakes and feed out in teh winter.
There are signs up all over the park asking that peopel stop feeding the ducks and geese.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsbrown99/2035119937/
Also, not all of them go south. Some of them just go to lower elevations.
Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
It's not the temperature that they flee. Even tropical birds like parrots can easily fledge out to withstand very cold weather. Its the diminishing food supply. So birds who have the curiosity, cleverness, and ability to tolerate proximity to many other species, including humans, do just fine in the city, where the food supply never stops.
Out in the rural region where we live there are quite a few commercial aviaries. One fellow got up one morning and realized that we were having a once-in-a-century cold wave and the temperature had fallen below freezing. "Ohmigod!" he screamed, "My poor lorikeets will be frozen to death." He ran out in his jammies to his outdoor breeding colony and found one who had resolutely pecked a hole in the ice on top of his water dish... and was happily bathing in it.
A pair of grass keets escaped from the zoo in Stuttgart many years ago, where it gets REALLY cold in the winter. They were spotted in the spring, fat and happy.
People have macaws in Alaska and I've seen photos of them playing in the snow.
Out in the rural region where we live there are quite a few commercial aviaries. One fellow got up one morning and realized that we were having a once-in-a-century cold wave and the temperature had fallen below freezing. "Ohmigod!" he screamed, "My poor lorikeets will be frozen to death." He ran out in his jammies to his outdoor breeding colony and found one who had resolutely pecked a hole in the ice on top of his water dish... and was happily bathing in it.
A pair of grass keets escaped from the zoo in Stuttgart many years ago, where it gets REALLY cold in the winter. They were spotted in the spring, fat and happy.
People have macaws in Alaska and I've seen photos of them playing in the snow.
They wanted to experiance a A 320 aircrafts jet engines! 
They wanted to experiance a A 320 aircrafts jet engines!
Lol...they didn't want to pay that 2nd bag fee...and are waiting for the super saver fares from the airlines next month
Lack of food.
As long as people feed them they will stay it seems but that could lead to a change in the instincts to fly South and one day humans just might not feed them any longer and they will not know what to do or where to go!
Still birds won't be flying in any weather.
As long as people feed them they will stay it seems but that could lead to a change in the instincts to fly South and one day humans just might not feed them any longer and they will not know what to do or where to go!
can instincts be changed?
Of course , over time, everything can change and does!
Buffalo Roam
Registered Senior Member
Yes, they have done so with the Rattle Snake, they have been hunted so hard, that the majority of breeding population were the ones who didn't sound the warning rattle, and now more and more don't sound a warning before they strike.
There was a program on Cable about the rapid change in instinct with the Rattle Snake, and that more and more of them won't rattle even when deliberately disturbed.
well a number have gone to the Bosque del Apache, so I wouldn't say they haven't been going south
Fraggle mentioned that some birds have adapted to human environments, and stay all winter feeding on our left overs. Which in many cases is really bad for them.
My last bus stop of the day is right next door to a Mc Donalds. It is a transfer point, so it is a busy stop with many people. Many people throw food on the ground out of pure laziness. Some of the downtown pigeons have made this their primary food source, and you can visually see the difference. These pigeons look tore up from the floor up. Their feathers are all greasy looking and unkept..their girth in much greater...many of their feet are all messed up, and they just look like "hobo pigeons". Other pigeons in downtown don't look like that, they just look like regular old pigeons. Shows you what that fast food crap will do to you. (ps Mac just lost 15 pounds simply by stopping eating that shit)
My last bus stop of the day is right next door to a Mc Donalds. It is a transfer point, so it is a busy stop with many people. Many people throw food on the ground out of pure laziness. Some of the downtown pigeons have made this their primary food source, and you can visually see the difference. These pigeons look tore up from the floor up. Their feathers are all greasy looking and unkept..their girth in much greater...many of their feet are all messed up, and they just look like "hobo pigeons". Other pigeons in downtown don't look like that, they just look like regular old pigeons. Shows you what that fast food crap will do to you. (ps Mac just lost 15 pounds simply by stopping eating that shit)
pigeons are rats with wings :bugeye:
In most cases I would agree with you. If you feed them..they will come back.
I had an elderly lady who lived next door who took great pleasure in feeding the birds. Every morning she would toss out a bag of old bread crumbs across her front lawn...and brother...it was fucking bird-a-palooza. Hundreds of birds, mostly pigeons and grackles, would arrive. It was cool, because occasionally you'd see some migrating birds drop in to see what the hub-bub was, and you'd get to see some more rare birds.
What Ina May didn't know was that birds don't have teeth. Many consume small pebbles to aid in the grinding up of their food in their gullets. They almost picked every bit of gravel off the shingles of her roof, and she eventually had to have her shingles replaced. The bird feeding stopped after that.
grackles... are cool. I was living in the corn fields and thousands of grackles would come by, spring and fall. what a sight and talk about chatter. Then they would shut up and take off. wow.
Heck, they would take on hawks too... gang up on them.. wild thing to watch
Heck, they would take on hawks too... gang up on them.. wild thing to watch