Birds

[flitty]

Just a thought. There must be millions of birds around and no doubt many die naturally so why do you hardly ever see a dead bird lying about.

[boxtops]

They are often under hedges etc., they die in quiet places - and most of them get eaten up by predators quite quickly.

[baza]

they go to the big aviary in the sky.

[FredPuli43]

You hardly ever see a dead anything, unless it's road kill. And the creatures that would consume road kill can't get to it very easily because of where it is; if it were still in the hedgerow or field it would be gone quickly.

Proof? I dumped a dead muntjac deer in a hedgerow on this farm. When I went by a day later, there was no sign of it. Same happened, though with more evidence, when I dumped one under a bush in the middle of a meadow. In 24 hours I could see some of the skeleton and flesh but by three days the only sign was a bit of the skull and the pelvis and a couple of verterbrae,all scattered over a wide area, where foxes had dropped them.

Birds are tiny in comparison, and weak, old , ones are likely to be killed and eaten quickly by predators even before the flies, crows etc set in.

[wildwood]

Hardly any birds die naturally, except in captivity.

When a bird gets older or is sick, it usually is easily caught by a predator before it dies so you won't see them. Any that do die 'naturally' hide under bushes etc, so will be hard to see. Any that don't get eaten by mammals will be quickly disposed off by insects.