How often do you find a dead bird on the ground, apart from those killed on the roads, or those which have dashed themselves against a window? You may also find, occasionally, a scattering of feathers where some predator such as a hawk has descended on a small victim. But how often have you found a robin or sparrow or blue tit dead at, say, the bottom of a hedge where it had spent a winter's night? One of the main reasons for feeding birds is that we are told the smaller ones, in particular, must stoke up heavily with food in the winter hours before dark, to carry them alive through the cold night. And those who do put out nuts and other fare in feeders are aware of the frenzy that descends on them as darkness creeps up.
We are told that very many of them do die, especially those in their first year. But what happens to the corpses? The question arose from a man who works at hedge-trimming, fencemending and other such activities throughout the year, as part of his job. He could not immediately recall to mind ever coming across the corpse of a robin, blue-tit, wren or any of the other birds he himself feeds. And we do have a considerable population of small birds. About three million pairs of wrens, writes David Cabot, and some two million pairs of robins.
This friend has also searched nestboxes in winter and has tried nests galore. (One reads of small birds huddling together for warmth in hard times). But he cannot recollect any corpses. Of course, there are eaters of carrion. Badgers on occasion maybe. Foxes, without doubt, rats and all the spectrum of insects. Gilbert White took a bland stance on this. He had no doubt that the birds wintering in his part of England, which was Hampshire, subsisted chiefly on insects or grubs; and hedge-sparrows had sinks and gutters in which to pick up crumbs and other sweepings; and in mild weather they procure worms "which are stirring every month of the year, as any one may see that will be at the trouble of taking a candle to a grass plot on any mild winter's night."
What about the frosty or snowy night? Anyway, how often have you come across the frozen corpse of such a bird? Our friend, again, cannot remember a case. Y