Would you keep your cat indoors during the bird nesting season.

[NumbBum]

Would you keep your cat indoors during the bird nesting season. I heard a chap petitioning for this on the BBC a while ago. It is claimed that cats kill 1os of millions of birds during the nesting season . It is a simple question

 

It is natural for the felines to sleep in the day (when most birds are around) and cats like to roam at night when there are fewer birds around. However, humans like to keep them in at night and let them out in the day. Go with the cats instincts and far fewer birds will be caught. Now, the mice and rats that like to be abroad at night will be the cats prime target then.

 

Keeping them in in the day when there is more road traffic about and letting them out at night when the roads are much quieter is good for the moggies anyway.

 

We have three cats... not significant hunters of birds. But there are regular mice and the occasional rat on the doorstep in a morning. (we live out in the sticks with nearby farmland)

 

I am a member of the BTO and the RSPB and it is an oft debated question by us birders. The figures on the numbers of birds falling as prey to cats are only best estimates. I suspect the case is overstated by a good percentage.

[lizmachin]

It is natural for the felines to sleep in the day (when most birds are around) and cats like to roam at night when there are fewer birds around. However, humans like to keep them in at night and let them out in the day. Go with the cats instincts and far fewer birds will be caught. Now, the mice and rats that like to be abroad at night will be the cats prime target then.

 

Keeping them in in the day when there is more road traffic about and letting them out at night when the roads are much quieter is good for the moggies anyway.

 

We have three cats... not significant hunters of birds. But there are regular mice and the occasional rat on the doorstep in a morning. (we live out in the sticks with nearby farmland)

 

I am a member of the BTO and the RSPB and it is an oft debated question by us birders. The figures on the numbers of birds falling as prey to cats are only best estimates. I suspect the case is overstated by a good percentage.

 

 

According to the report, it is at night that the problem occurs. The cats find nesting birds in hedges and bushes and simply kill all the young and any adult bird that gets too close.

[NumbBum]

Originally Posted by horribleblob

However, isn't it the case that grey squirrels are just as much a danger to nesting birds as they raid the nests for eggs?

 

The same cannot be said for the magpies which regularly attack smaller birds.

 

Corvidae is a cosmopolitan family of oscine passerine birds. (that's a good mouthfull) that contains the crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, jays and magpies etc. The common English name used is corvids and there are over 120 species. They will all take young birds and the eggs of others. The breeding season is when they are under most pressure (to feed their young) to predate other birds. Magpies are the ones we see most often in our gardens and so they are the one we highlight for our ire...

 

Grey Squirrel's will take eggs and young birds in the nest as part of their normal diet. Nuts berries and seeds are not available all the year round. So their diet will vary on what's available in the season.

[NumbBum]

According to the report, it is at night that the problem occurs. The cats find nesting birds in hedges and bushes and simply kill all the young and any adult bird that gets too close.

 

Part of the instinctive trait with the young birds in the nest is to be noisy during the day demanding food. However, the instinct changes at night and they tend to be very quiet and keep warm as the parent broods them in the nest.

 

Many birds can now only breed in nest boxes as the urban environment (and cat environmen) has changed over the last few decades. There are fewer and fewer natural nesting sites available. Plastic soffits and blocked eaves with draft proofing insulation have stolen many of the old nesting places in an urban environment. Nest boxes however tend to be pretty cat proof.

 

Mike

[jeremyjh1]

Would you keep your cat indoors during the bird nesting season.

 

I heard a chap petitioning for this on the BBC a while ago.

 

It is claimed that cats kill 1os of millions of birds during the nesting season .

 

It is a simple question

 

As harsh as it may sound, that's nature. Whether it's in the jungles of Borneo or the plains of Africa or the forests of North America, animals kill other animals.

 

Darwin described it as natural selection and survival of the fittest.

 

That said, I wouldn't go to the other extreme and force my cat (which, I do not have) to go out as much as possible with the intention of killing nesting birds.

 

But, that's nature.

 

All too often Mankind has sought to 'control' nature with usually devastating consequences.

 

Nature did a very good job all by itself.

[Alastair]

Sorry cats will go with their instincts, It is nature why would you keep a cat indoors.

As we do animals have an instinct to danger, so those that dont learn suffer the outcome.

 

But cats aren't natural in the UK, the birds are. All cats (except working cats) should have to wear a collar with a bell so they can't go round killing wildlife.

[sandie]

My cat's tally last year was 349 mice, 28 rats, 18 rabbits, a live adder (released unharmed after it bit me - the cat seemed immune), 2 ducks and 3 magpies.

 

On the vermin/bird balance he's happy. He also killed the neighbours poodle after it was set on him.

 

Scottish wildcat/domestic crosses are evil buggers when they put their minds to it.

 

Hi olorin, your statement of the amount of kills you cat as acheived does not supprise me. Our cat is a wildcat/ domestic and as we live in the far North East of Scotland at the end of a Croft we have no neibhours, just fields she has a mixture of animals to choose from.

The only ones she will not try are the badgers or the Deer, she has tried but suffered the consiquences as we have with vet bill.

 

We have a mixture of birds of prey up here and they frequently pray on young rabits this partucular day last year a young Common Buzzard tried to have a go at our cat I did not see it, but she brought it to the back door. She had a few scars but was fine the Buzzard had many more scars and it was dead

 

But I love the fearless character she has.

[Redyam]

Our cats very rarely manage to catch a bird, they are too quick for them. They are too old now, but they mainly used to catch mice and those huge rats that no one likes anyway.

[Moonbird]

I have voted yes, because I would truly like to and when I see fledgling birds on the ground I do try to, as I really don't like the cruel side of my otherwise lovely cats.

In practice it is very difficult I'm sorry to say, I usually end up paying penance by rescuing said baby birds and taking them to the vet to rear until they can fly.

[olorin]

But cats aren't natural in the UK, the birds are. All cats (except working cats) should have to wear a collar with a bell so they can't go round killing wildlife.

 

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