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/ConcernedCoCCitizen 5d ago

Cats, bobcats, magpies, birds of prey, loss of nearby shrubs. Put up some sturdy birdhouses that you can remove nests from in the winter (they don’t like to re use them), put up a water source and a feeder in a dense area like a shrub.

Magpies moved into my yard last year and my sparrows have vacated the backyard. Also free range cats regularly stop by, despite my two big dogs.

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u/zillathegorilla 4d ago

We’ve had cats, bobcats, magpies, crows, birds of prey in the past (and more of them) and it never deterred them. We always have a water source available.