Is it me or are the birds behaving strangely?

[username108]

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but the birds seem to be much more tame and less afraid. When I went for my daily walk yesterday, there were a few blackbirds in my path that didn't seem that bothered i was there- when normally they would fly off or move a fair distance. They also seem to be singing and fighting a lot more. It's fucking weird. It all feels like Alfred Hitchcock's 'the birds'.

In light of this thread I checked the relevant parts of my garden.
All nest sites in use

The winter was comparatively VERY mild
so far fewer small birds froze to death
and the insects and invertebrates came to life as soon as the flooding dried up
so its likely to be a bumper breeding season
helped by the reduced pollution

I’ve noticed that very few birds are coming to our garden feeder, there’s usually lots on there.
Plus there are very few pigeons about.
It is strange !

I have noticed there are a lot of birds, unusually in my garden, seeing as I have a cat & dog! I think it’s lovely

Yes I’ve noticed op👆🏼Had put it down to some of the reasons people have mentioned but not all, so this thread is educational food for thought

We’ve seen a heron (the same one several times) in a marshy area on our usual dog walk over the past couple of weeks too. Haven’t seen one since I was a kid and think the kids thought it was a pterodactyl!

think the kids thought it was a pterodactyl!

They're quite a thing the first time you see one in flight.

The squirrels are quite active at the moment too.. I have seen someone has a built a picnic bench and attached it to the fence, the photo on Facebook with a squirrel eating nuts siting on this mini picnic bench.. it was a giggle social distancing for squirrels, they will have to start slimming world and follow joe wickes next 😄

Absolutely right OP , the same thought come to my mind today ,there were two black birds in my garden they totally ignored me, I was literally invisible to them ,they were way to relaxed about my presence, it freaked me out !

The birds are happy. Less people and smog.

I thought they were acting strange in that I spent a lot on food for them but they haven't touched it

We've noticed a decrease in the seagull population. We're inland (about 10 miles from the coast) and there's usually loads nesting on the roofs of the school next door. However their usual diet of discarded packed lunch food has gone. We have noticed an increase in jackdaws, blackbirds and wood pigeons.

"Where be that blackbird to?
I know where he be
He be up yon wurzel tree
An' I be after ee"

A little robin came and befriended me yesterday when I was in the garden. He kept coming really close and kind of ‘teasing’ me; came close, skipped off, came closer, a little further away....Never experienced anything like it before.

I hate birds. I love that robin!

Not sure if they've changed their behaviour, but there seem to be more birds this year and they're singing a lot more, but then it is spring...

1. More insects than last year already, possibly due to verges not being cut back, more rewilding, fewer cars about so less pollution/noise/terror (though the drivers of some of the ones that are still about seem to think the entire UK road network has morphed into Silverstone or somewhere....)

1. Nice weather - like last year, we've suddenly gone from miserable endless wet hideousness almost straight into early summer, to relative warmth and even sunshine

1. Maybe more people are keeping their cats in?

1. More people are at home than previously so noticing the birds more

1. Where we live there is no shortage whatsoever of seagulls (though they're actually having to go and catch their own food at the moment, which must be a bit of a shock for them), crows, pigeons, tits, magpies, and robins. And over Easter when we were in the garden we must have spotted about 6 different types of bee and 4 or 5 different butterflies. Plus lots of lovely plump insects on the grass for them to munch...

1. Also feel as if the fact that we're not all wandering about as much using quite as much mobile data must be having an effect somehow (and no, I'm not a 5G conspiracy theorist, I think the jury's still out on whether it does affect health or not)

I have noticed that they are still out and about and tweeting in the middle off the night. I have heard them at 1,2,3 am and probably more. They just don't seem to sleep like they used to.

Im a pretty outdoorsy person and maybe because your taking allowed walks ect, its just opened your eyes and you take notice a little more..esp if your not working ect. Its always there but we are just normally far too busy rushing about to see it.

Also feel as if the fact that we're not all wandering about as much using quite as much mobile data must be having an effect somehow
Mobile data loads have ROCKETED as young people talk to each other virtually rather than face to face.

THe biggest source of EM radiation in the atmosphere is sunlight after all ....

@ListeningQuietly Maybe that's the reason, then, combined with the extra WiFi load. Though we're not wandering the streets and public transport systems with the meandering mobiles in the way we used to, we're all much more local than we were?

Though I don't notice many young people talking to each other face to face even outside Lockdown - they can be 3 feet away from one another and still prefer to use a mobile.

One pigeon has literally flown into me last week and touched me with its wing. I got worried thinking what if that pigeon had Coronavirus? It was flying in a strange way

www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-52273387/coronavirus-the-wildlife-species-enjoying-lockdown?xtor=ES-211-[31339_PANUK_SOT_15_CNV_Send7EngagedCNV1to6_RET]-20200416-[bbcnews_coronavirusthewildlifespeciesenjoyinglockdown_wildlife]

not sure if the above has been shared already.

Mother Nature must be laughing up her sleeve right now. More birds, less pollution, deer in the high street and sheep on the children's roundabouts. Plus, how ironic that in the one year there is wall to wall sunshine for weeks over Easter hols, no one can go out or get on an aeroplane. Perhaps She is getting her own back for being abused by humans. Just a theory.

Yes, they always do at this time of year though - it's mating season, sends them all a bit barmy

Oh and the ones that don't move are young birds who are a bit stupid and not worked out they need to yet - or males with more important things on their mind

We saw a magpie take a small bird. Looked like a blue tit. The other blue tit was having a right go at the magpie but obviously the taken bird was doomed. I knew they did this but had never seen it

We had the same a couple of years ago - a magpie take a baby blue hit and tear it to shreds. The psrentvtitvand magpie both crashed into our window in the scuffle.

If you hear Robins and Blackbirds saying "seee... Seee..." that tends to mean "SHIT THE FUCKING MAGPIES ARE BACK!"

Omg yes!! The crows! We actually just commented the other day about them, don't usually see them and they've been so loud! And then to happen upon this thread- all very strange indeed!

Hell yeah - the cocky pigeons!