Too many cats!
Yup. Exactly.
ditto
But suggest thinning out the cat population and everyone goes nuts.
Too many crows eating eggs and chicks.
Cats are DNA driven to murder birds.
No quibble with all you fine folks who own cats. Animal aficionados are all good peeps in my book.
That said, if it gets down to cats or birds, I'll side with our feathered friends 10/10.
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Conversion of farms to forest, vastly increased raptor populations, no one hunting or trapping the biggest egg and chick predators, ‘possums and coons. The common species of songbirds flourished when everything was cleared and there were lots of hedgerows and not very many coopers and sharpies waiting for them to visit the feeders. Not sure that feeding birds is an occupation that gets Millennials off their cell phones either, esp when the price of seed skyrocketed as farmers switched to ethanol crops and the economy took a dive leaving people to cut wild birdseed out of their budget.
The numbers of coons and to a lesser degree possums is getting ridiculous. The coons have wiped out our local turkeys by feasting on eggs.
40,000 cats in Key West, the beginning of birds’ migratory flightpath from Mexico.
Too many manicured lawns, which support grubs, which benefit the crow populations, who then rob songbird nests in Spring.
Blue Jays are in the same family as Crows, and also known as predators of songbird nests.
It’s been 20 years since I last heard a Veery or Hermit Thush, and this is in a county of increasingly manicured lawns and tree removals.
Amen. Kill feral cats.