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tence; a time wnen many tall victim to predators that are drawn to the young bird by its incessant food calls. The young bird’s ability to fly is not yet developed so they cannot escape predation by flight.
Cats, with their remarkable hearing, are skillful stalkers of birds at this stage of development and even a well-fed pet will follow food calls of young birds and make a kill. In the quick pounce for a fledgling, a cat is just being a cat.
A feral cat, one that is living off what it can capture in the wild, is particularly destructive at this time of the year. There is not much the individual can do about feral cats, but owners of pets can make a great difference by keeping cats in the house.
We are losing our bird life from reduced and constricted nesting and feeding habitat, kills from striking windows, toxic pesticides, and collisions with cars, not to mention loss during the long migration to and from the tropics. Keeping pets indoors is one way an individual can make a difference.
Studies show that the Wood Thrush — our most beautiful woodland singer — has declined by 75 percent since 1985. This is just one species that has been carefully monitored.
1A cat is an unnatural predator; one that was introduced into the New World within the last 350 years. Cats arrived on the same ships that brought our ancestors.
Birds have existed with natural predators such as hawks, owls, snakes, foxes, skunks and raccoons for millions of years. Loss of bird life by these predators benefits birds because it removes the unwary, the runt, the not-quite-fast-enough from the breeding population. In other words, only the fittest survive to continue the health of the species.
Jays, crows, and grackles eat eggs and young, thus keeping the bird population on a level with the available food supply. If all the Robin eggs laid in one season hatched, and the young developed into adults, there would be a severe drain on the earthworm populations on which Robins feed.
Egg-stealing predators not only keep bird populations in balance with the available good supply, they break up the breeding cycle by forcing birds that have had their
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