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?!

@Hedonism

What about big things like deer and badgers?

Sick or injured animals will hide themselves away from larger predators (or humans) to protect themselves - therefore die in thickets/hedgerows etc Carcasses don't take long to break down to a skeleton

Stoats, Weasels, foxes, badgers, kites, buzzards etc will all make short work of small bird, I have a ruthless Pergrie Falcon that likes to dive bomb the pigeons in my garden, and then take them away for feast.

Birds don't generally have chance to become elderly and totter off to die in their sleep. Loads of predation by other birds and cats, starvation in winter, various infectious avian diseases spread at bird feeders. It's a sad reality that the robin you see every year in winter, which you think is 'your' robin, is almost certainly a different one each year. A small proportion of birds make it to adulthood, so they may have big broods of eggs. But mainly, the bodies are scavenged by lots of predators or even corvids like magpies and crows, or buried under thick hedges and disintegrate quite quickly so you wouldn't really come across them

@Torag 😲 My grandmother alway insisted she saw something similar to what you describe. She used a different term for it than ‘vigil’, but essentially birds all sitting in a circle. It sounded so mysterious and I didn’t quite believe her. I do now!

Usually in my kitchen looking like the slaughterhouse faery has visited, courtesy of my cats

Beetles bury dead animals to feed their larvae
www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/beetles/common-sexton-beetle#:~:text=The%20Common%20sexton%20beetle%20is%20a%20'burying%20beetle'%3A%20these,fly%20into%20lights%20at%20night.

I came across a dying woodpigeon once when on a countryside walk. I put it in my woolly hat because I didn't want to leave it there on its own. It died whilst I was still walking.

Maybe they just fall off their perch at night, and are ‘recycled’ by foxes etc. I once found a dead (adult) blackbird under a shrub in the garden - it was not noticeably damaged - I just left it and it very soon disappeared. We do get visiting foxes, though.

I had a dead mouse on the lawn. Over a couple of days, it was mostly eaten by wasps. This was a good thing, as it saved me doing anything about it before mowing the lawn.

Birds are prey to a lot of animals. They don’t get old, they just get slower…

I don’t think it’s normal for wild animals in general to die of old age. Once they become elderly and start slowing down, they’ll get caught and eaten. Survival of the fittest and all that

We've just bought a house with a small bit of woodland attached. We recently found a beautiful dead fox there. And then a skull probably of another fox. It's quite a way from the nearest road so they weren't roadkill.

Epic thread!

I saw a pigeon die while in a country lane last year. It was looking a little strange on its perch in a tree - didn't move, gasping for breath. It then fell off and landed awkwardly in the fork of the tree. My partner helped it to the ground where it sat quietly, but obviously dying.

When we passed again about an hour later there was but a huge pile of feathers... something had taken advantage of it alredy!

I saw a dead fox when out for a walk, it was curled up under the hedge, looked like it had died in it's sleep

I'm surprised you ask this question!

As PPs have said, birds don't get elderly. They are prey, and don't live long.

Every now and then I find a dead creature in my garden. 2 birds in a week once but nothing for a good six months now. Usually all gone within 24 hours.

Ive got visions of elderly birds in wheelchairs with knitted blankets on their knees now !

Foxes will eat anything - in fact they seem to prefer their meat a bit 'ripe' . Badgers, kites, rats etc etc similarly not very discerning. And actually, if I chuck a dead mouse on the grass after the cats have killed it, the body often seems to attracts the attention of hungry slugs, too

I don’t think it’s that unusual to see a dead bird on the ground from time to time. Most get eaten before you find them.

Thanks for the further replies, the pigeon vigil thing is both sad and lovely.

I do realise that it’s the nature of things for the fittest to survive, and that wildlife will eat other wildlife. I was just thinking that, considering the large number of birds, I’d have expected to see more dead ones. I thought there’d be more instances of wjagb@Pebble21uk describes going on.

Anyway, I’m going to convince myself that they’re all in sunshine retirement villages, playing whist and having tea dances :)

I hesitated to post this, but I recently read that foxes sometimes kill other foxes, including their young and/or the young of others. Similarly, I once saw a huge flock of seagulls trying to kill a baby seagull. I was duly horrified and shooed them off (with difficulty) and it hid but I don't expect it lasted long.

Much prefer the retirement home and blanket vision!

@Sailorsusan

I hesitated to post this, but I recently read that foxes sometimes kill other foxes, including their young and/or the young of others. Similarly, I once saw a huge flock of seagulls trying to kill a baby seagull. I was duly horrified and shooed them off (with difficulty) and it hid but I don't expect it lasted long.

Much prefer the retirement home and blanket vision!

Crows will also gang up and kill then eat injured ones.

I think Arthur Boyt collects them up and eats them.

Birds don't die of natural causes generally. The slow or weak just get eaten by whatever is around to catch them.
Round mine every year theres a big war of crows and magpies as they try and steal and eat each others babies. Noisy af and the seagulls join in just for fun.