I am guessing that most of them are carried off and eaten, by coyotes,
turkey vultures, cougars, etc. I would guess that there are enough
carnivores out there who would eat carrion opportunistically.

But yes, I've wondered the same thing myself.

I can tell you that it seems that birds do decompose fairly quickly,
though. Not that I care to reveal how I came to that assessment
(ick--it involves a bird that evidently hit a window, and landed
underneath my back porch).

-Jacki Bricker
Woodinville, Washington


On Thu, 9 Sep 1999, Tom Benedict wrote:

> This is probably a FAQ, but I don't know how to research Tweeters
> archives, so I'll throw the question out.
>
> Where do dead birds "go"? What I really mean, I guess, is where are all
> the bird corpses. I rarely see any, but there must be plenty somewhere.
>
> Do they decay or are consumed so quickly that we don't notice them?
>
> Are there really not that many? This seems unlikely because there are
> so many birds and they have relatively short lifespans.
>
> Are they just so small that we don't notice them?
>
> Or do they end up at a great bird graveyard somewhere behind
> impenetrable walls?
>
> Tom Benedict
> tbenz at halcyon.com
>

-Jacki