Birds are dying in the United States and no one knows why

[csziggy]

16. Yes, that is what I have been doing

I haven't put feeders out since fall of 2017 - not because I didn't want to feed them but because I physically could not handle putting them out every morning and in at night to keep the deer and raccoons from scarfing all the food every night

While the area around the house did not have great vegetation until this year our farm has sixty acres of great habitat. We do have water sources for the birds and we have plenty of birds. We may not get some of the seed eater birds that we used to see at the feeders but I have a plan - next year I will plant sunflowers and some grains in our south field - that is about half an acre so there should be lots of area for the birds to eat. Of course, the deer may also eat them, but as long as they don't graze them all down, that is OK.

This spring we planted mostly native plants that attract birds, bees, and butterflies and there are LOTS of each. We also put in plats that provide food and shelter for caterpillars and life cycles for other insects.

The other part is that we do not use chemicals on our plants. I pay some people to pull weeds and mulch. We put slow release organic fertilizer only at the base of the plants we want. We get the lawn mowed about every three weeks - centipede grass doesn't even like fertilizer so we don't treat it at all. That is working just fine for controlling plants we don't want. No need to poison our environment.