bird in compost heap

[derbi]

i was out in my nans garden helping her tidy up, we started getting rid of the compost heap.
to my surprise there was a dead bird right at the bottom and more towards the middle of the heap, from the look of it it hadnt been there long.
It looked like a trush but had a red orangey color on its breast.
ive seen trushes but not one like this, do they normally have this coloration and ive just not noticed or was something else?
Also has anybody got any ideas on why a bird would be at the bottom of the compost heap?, it had no injerys that i could tell so im not sure on the cause of death.
Any ideas
cheers

[mrs fish]

I wonder if some creature buried it there for later, I can't think what though

[Kayleigh]

Sounds like you have rats. The bird could be a redwing a member of the thrush family .

[Paul mabbott]

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

Sounds like you have rats. The bird could be a redwing a member of the thrush family .

I can't think of anything else that would store things away in such a manner (maybe a Fox). But then, I don't see a rat or Fox killing a thrush (or whatever). Possibly this was a bird that died naturally and its corpse was scavenged by something such as a rat?

[derbi]

yep thats it thanks all.
it is possible that it died naturally then was scavenged but then it had no marks or signs that it was somebodys dinner, but with all the feathers still on i couldnt really get a good look. maybe one of those little mysteries
Shame though it was a pretty looking

[aeshna5]

Foxes will regularly cache (bury) surplus food. Once found a drake Mallard that had been buried by a Fox where I worked + several times found eggs of Canada Geese that had been buried.

Foxes are oppurtunistic hunters so will take birds of any size as well as invertebrates, amphibians, small mammals + fruit.