All of our birds are leaving/disappearing

It's very strange and quiet at our place. Southern MO; in the country; lots of woods, creeks, fields. We have lots of feeders which are normally busy even with the natural food sources close by. But.........our birds are leaving. We have always had a yard full of cardinals, blue jays, finches, doves, hummers.........you name it. The migrating birds weren't as numerous as usual. The hummers came for a couple of weeks, and now we have........one pair. Maybe four cardinals and a couple of blue jays. We don't have the usual Purple Martins this year, either. Plenty of cowbirds and grackles, though (joy). What is happening?? Do you think the weather has anything to do with this? And the worst part is that we have always have several pairs of BB. This year, we have 2. sob.

We don't have cats but there is the occasional hawk, though not as many of them either. Come to think of it, the crows have left too.

It's a mystery..........

I have noticed and read that severe weather affects wild as well as domesticated animals, etc. Perhaps the birds are sensing that all is not well in your part of the country. I don't know if all the tornadoes and and other rough weather are normal for your part of the country (we are doing good to watch out for hurricanes and the like around here) this time of year but it seems that that could certainly have an impact on the birds and they are getting "the h*** out of Dodge".

Ann

That's sensible plantladyhou. Wild animals seem to have a sixth sense.

I have wondered if weather might be a contributing factor. The really severe weather has bypassed us so far. But....hm-m-m......we sit on an earthquake fault. Nope. Not going to think along those lines.

Mima, maybe this is one time we can be thankful for the broken karst/gravel for dirt that we have in south MO. The quake will lose most of it's power going thru all that, it helps to not have bedrock. ;-)
I've lost almost all of my birds too. Just a few hummers, a pair of goldies, and I lost my baltimore orioles and only have one pair of the orchards. Everyone else is down around normal.
Do you think it is that the weather up north is just now getting springlike?

Any neighbours been using pesticides or herbicides, or clearing scrub and dense cover, etc?

Crows disappearing could possibly indicate an outbreak of west nile virus.

Resin

Nan, re earthquakes, where we are, we have limestone caves under us. Not far from us, a backhoe disappeared overnight......straight down!

Resin, our fields are fescue, for seed and hay. Rarely does anyone use pesticides or herbicides. However, last year, the crew who clears under power/telephone lines used an herbicide for miles to kill off growth underneath. We had many crows all winter, and I just heard on the radio (what timing!) that West Nile virus isn't here yet this year.

I guess it's a wait-and-see issue. I'll talk to the wildlife agent when I see him next. Thanks for everyone's input.

Yikes! Hidden caves that crash in! It's bad when you cannot trust the earth beneath your feet.

We lost over 90% of the crows and blue jays to west nile. The survivors are why I started feeding the birds in normal winter weather. Do we have to worry that the survivors will catch this and die, or do they have some immunity?

What an interesting question, Nan. I did a little googling. Nothing was mentioned about immunity. Emphasis was placed on keeping feeders and watering spots clean.

I think I'll start another thread and see what kind of info other folks have. Glad you brought it up!