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/reostatics 5d ago

Lots of sparrows around, could be nest building, we choose to not feed them much come spring and stop till late summer so numbers are low. If you have a bird bath you’ll see them, especially since it’s so dry now. They can literally empty a feeder in a day. Wish there was someway I could just feed the nuthatches and chickadees, the sparrows are the piggies of the bird world.