Where do all the elderly birds go to die?

[Nailest]

Why aren’t there flocks of dead birds all over the shop? I imagine wildlife gets some of them, but where are all the others?!

My cat takes quite a lot.

They get eaten. Either things up the food chain catch the ones getting old or sick, or they die and then things (big or little) eat them.

It's quite rare to see more than one dead bird when you're about-and in fact it is a sign of endemic disease. At the moment there is an avian flu outbreak, in the Eastern region iirc and people are asked to report sightings of dead birds.

I have seen a beach full of dead birds in Australia. The local guide said it was a frequent thing to be seen.

But also, where do all the wild animals go to die?

Isn’t it interesting then, that you don’t see more than one dead bird at a time. I don’t know, kind of like nature’s way of keeping things just so

@TheSpottedZebra

They get eaten. Either things up the food chain catch the ones getting old or sick, or they die and then things (big or little) eat them.

It's quite rare to see more than one dead bird when you're about-and in fact it is a sign of endemic disease. At the moment there is an avian flu outbreak, in the Eastern region iirc and people are asked to report sightings of dead birds.

Interesting - thank you. I’d have thought coming across birds who’d died naturally would be a common sight but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one!

@MandUs

I have seen a beach full of dead birds in Australia. The local guide said it was a frequent thing to be seen.

But also, where do all the wild animals go to die?

That must have been an unsettling experience?

They go to a lovely little retirement complex on the South Coast where they live out their dotage sipping nectar and eating grains before peacefully passing away in a comfy feathered nest ...

Oh wait, this is 'nature, red in tooth and claw' we're talking about. They get eaten. Usually alive. Sorry.

As a child I was taken to either Crosby or Formby beach. There were dead birds everywhere. I can remember they seemed big so I can only think I was quite small. Apparently I cried all the way back to Manchester.

@Beachsidesunset

They go to a lovely little retirement complex on the South Coast where they live out their dotage sipping nectar and eating grains before peacefully passing away in a comfy feathered nest ...

Oh wait, this is 'nature, red in tooth and claw' we're talking about. They get eaten. Usually alive. Sorry.

The first part of your post conjured up such a lovely vision of elderly birds in smoking jackets and/or knitting/listening to the gramophone!

We have kites in our area. They can reduce leftover chicken (after the foxes have done their worst) to a few feathers within a day.

I would think that a bird that was feeling poorly would be hidden away anyway.
I have seen a seagull die and just crash to the floor from out of the sky. Was an odd sight.

They don't die, but the batteries do run out...

They are eternal, being the ghosts of the war dead.

What about big things like deer and badgers?

I do find carcuses semi-regularly but most wildlife doesnt make it to old age. As wild birds and animals get older and sicker they're more likely to get killed by competetors, caught by predators and/or swiftly detected by scavengers when they succumb to disease.

I have seen a deer carcass and there wasn't much meat on it... Round here a dead fox, badger or deer would just be eaten, probably by a fox or badger. I think if they come across something dead, they eat it, although they hunt small animals and eat worms, berries etc.

My SIL found a dead owl under a tree in her garden one morning a few years ago.
It was frozen solid. Think it must have died during the night and fell out of the tree.

Most animals don’t make it to what we would think of as middle age, let alone old age. When they start to slow down they get killed.

@Hedonism

What about big things like deer and badgers?

If they are fresh roadkill my neighbour will collect them and sort them out and put them in his freezer to eat for tea.

Oh that’s sad :(. So no elderly birds living in genteel retirement somewhere!

Does anyone else ever wonder if animals or birds intentionally get hit by vehicles to save themselves a long, slow and probably unpleasant death?

In my chimney it feels like judging off the amount removed by the chimney sweep 😐

Erm wild animals don’t get to elderly

The Marigoldfinch Hotel

Twice in my life I have seen a pigeon 'vigil' where an obviously ill bird was in the final stages of life on the grass. The other pigeons sat silently around the afflicted one and for a short while after it died too. Then they left. The body was gone by the afternoon (not sure what took it but it wasn't any of us in the house).