This is an interesting query Ive been considering for a month now. Here at my house in coastal San Diego, where we have a lush native plant and pollinator-oriented yard, I noticed approximately a month ago that almost all our resident birds had disappeared within a day or two of each other. The departure was strikingly sudden. House finches, song sparrows, goldfinches, towhees, juncos, bushtits, mourning doves, etc. In the past month, like Amelia, weve seen only a handful of birds each day. Although we have about 15 different hummingbird-attracting flower species in full bloom and several feeders, we have maybe 4 hummingbirds regularly visiting the yard.
I was wondering if that may be because the winter rains made for an abundance of seeds and insects in wilder areas. But I am not seeing an increase in bird numbers in those wilder areas. So, inconclusive.
So the next questions is, is it avian flu Did not see any distressed birds prior to their abandoning the yard, but that doesnt mean much either.
And as for migrants, although radar seems to have shown a fairly good migration push, we have seen virtually no migrants this spring.
So I think this is possibly a southern California-wide phenomenon. It would be interesting to see whether something like eBird data analysis would tell us more about actual numbers of birds region-wide. Its so hard to generalize from ones own, or even a few, postage-stamp-sized backyards.
Stan Walens San Diego
   
    
     
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