Yesterday while having a bite at the Mac Donald restaurant in Ipoh, I received a strange call.
"Harry remember me. I was one of your student at Pulau Kapas Seminar. You see after the Seminar I started a BH in Pekan Pahang and now after lest then 6 months I have more then 40 birds. They are new and no babies yet. The strange thing was that last week when I visited the house there was one dead bird on the upper floor. Then this week I was another dead birds on the lower floor. Their bodies are not being bitten by any predators. So what is the problem?"
I told him there are 100 and one reasons but we can only guess.
Do you have any railings on the staircase?
His answer: No
Can you check those walls that you construct to block the light. Are they shorter then 4meters from the entrance holes?
His answer: I am not sure but will make some checking.
Well you try to check on this and if everything is okay then there must be some other possible reasons.
So what else can be the cause of those fatal things?
Normally if you have a BH with lots of baby birds in their nests there will be some that might fall down to the BH floor and die. Some might be due to their mother never feed them well, some might be due to the nest are too dry and brittle that breaks and make the young baby fall down to the floor. Some died due to old age, some might be due to sickness.
In Besut, Mr.J informed me that during flooding season, when there were less food, many young birds commit suicide when they were not fed by their parent for a couple of days. I believed when these birds do not receive enough food they will be so hungry that they become restless and jump out of the nest and kill themselves.
When in Kuala Trengganu, I entered a BH belonging to a friend named Mr.K. He relayed a strange phenomena where when he entered his BH lots of young birds died at the LAL area. It seem that the flight path around the LAL was causing the young birds to be trapped and hit the ceiling and fall down on the floor to die. He immediately hack the ceiling to open it size and immediately after that no more birds were dead on the same spot.
When I was in Setiawan inside Mr.D birdhouse, I was taken onto the top part of the building where those birds were entering the BH. Mr.D place a thin plywood to block those light entering the opening. The plywood was so closed to the hole, less they 4 feet, and I saw most of the birds entering he hole will hit the barrier. I am sure at high speed they will injure themselves. I quickly told Mr.D to remove them or perhaps push the barrier further from the birds flight path.
Those railings on the staircase might also be deadly if they are not well designed. Safety wise to the BH owner is okay but you need to make them small so that there will be less fatal to your birds. Remember they enter your BH at high speed and accident do happen.
The best is to ensure that you BH design is suitable for flying birds. Just imagine that you are a bird flying at high speed entering your house in the evening. Any walls or railings or windows or doors that are not well placed will be a hindrance to your flying path should be look into properly.
If you have any comment, something for others to learn about this subject matter, please write.
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