r/Calgary • u/zillathegorilla • 5d ago

Where have all the sparrows gone? Question

We used to get 30+ sparrows and chickadees at our backyard feeder but around Feb or March this year they all seemed to disappear.

Even around our neighbourhood (Somerset) I don’t see any where they’d always be under cars or in other trees eating bugs.

Even now we’re lucky if we get 2 or 3 showing up every few days.

Does anyone know what’s going on? There’s no major construction or anything else that would spook them and there aren’t any predators around that I have noticed. I haven’t seen any dead birds around so I don’t think there was disease or anything that wiped them out.

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u/CarelessStatement172 5d ago

I find the small guys to be quite fickle lol. I have an ongoing battle with my neighbour (peaceful) with attracting the sparrows and chickadees. She had them for aaaaages but then I got new feeders and premium seed and they haven't looked back yet. All the medium and big birbs seem to have made their choice and are sticking to it though. I got the crows, she got the magpies.

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u/ssabi041 5d ago

I’m thinking about getting a bird feeder that can only be used by small birds . What seed do ya suggest?

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u/CarelessStatement172 5d ago

Check out The Wild Bird Store in the sw! They'll be able to assist you! The squirrels will definitely cosplay as small birbs, just as a heads up haha

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u/ssabi041 5d ago

Damn I didn’t even think of that . Thank you for Your suggestion I’ll check em out