Quote:
Originally Posted by robert382  It could be that lack of insects in some areas could be partly the reason, farms have many flies etc round the cattle/sheep/poultry etc, whereas towns have little insect life except in parks and large gardens. This is affecting all insect eating birds, and even sparrows that feed their young exclusively on insect food for the first 14 days or so.
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the sewage filter beds of most towns and citys sewage farms have a large population of insects for birds to feed on,
having done maintenance work on many sewage farms , i have seen swallows, swifts and martins in huge numbers feeding around the works,
two large ones (Nottingham and Birmingham) would have hundreds of them at any one time, plus lots of wagtails, pied in particular and many other birds using them,
how far they travelled between nesting sites and the food source is unclear, but i would think some would come a fair distance to take advantage of the easy and abundant food supply available to them,
just imagine the amount of flys etc there would be if not for this type of bird to keep them in check
