4 ms·
I walk around my neighborhood every day (about 7 continuous years of at least 3 miles a day for context). This is in NY. Over the last 3 months or so I've seen
by nickjj 5y ago
I walk around my neighborhood every day (about 7 continuous years of at least 3 miles a day for context). This is in NY.
Over the last 3 months or so I've seen quite a few more than usual dead birds, most of which had really nasty looking eyes. It's not like something out of a horror movie where the streets are littered with them but instead of the 1-2 I might see in a couple month stretch, this has been more like 6-7 with similar eye issues for the ones that were "fresh" enough to see the details. Most were on the sidewalk or on someone's lawn.
I've seen 2 in the gutters of houses which seems strange, like they died on the roof of a house and trickled down. I only know this because it happened to people I tend to walk past and they were outside on a ladder addressing it.
They were all grackles and blue jays. There's a fairly equal amount of grackles, blue jays, robins, sparrows and crows here.
I also saw a pretty big crow fly directly into someone's window but it wasn't a usual case where it was a huge window where it might think it's open space. This was a pretty small window near a right angle of the entrance to their house. I've never seen a bird fly into a spot like that before. It flew off so I have no idea what happened to it.
- staticassertion 5y agoAre people supposed to call animal control in situations like this? Like, if I find a dead animal in general, is there someone who gets paid to know about that?
- msrenee 5y agoYour local audobon society chapter can probably get it to the correct people. You can also try a local university. They usually have an extention office for this sort of thing. Animal control is worth trying as well.
- nradov 5y agoIt depends where you are. For example in Santa Clara County, CA the local Vector Control asks people to report all dead birds so that they can test for West Nile Virus. https://vector.sccgov.org/resources/diseases-and-surveillance/west-nile-virus https://vector.sccgov.org/resources/diseases-and-surveillanc...
- grammarnazzzi 5y ago> Over the last 3 months or so I've seen quite a few more than usual dead birds, most of which had really nasty looking eyes Since scientists haven't found a conclusive common cause of death, perhaps they are confusing cause-and-effect. We shouldn't ignore the possiblity that birds with nasty eyes are being culled specifically for that reason. An "avian eugenic program" if you will, designed so the world will be populated by more attractive birds.
- dennis_jeeves 5y agolol, HN doesn't have a sense of humor, you have been downvoted.