[Birdtalk] Common backyard birds becoming less common

[Kaye & Lynn Garner]

Hm. I was told that starlings drove out the mountain bluebirds from  
Utah Valley when they came in back in the 1930's by pre-empting the  
cavity nesting places. Does anyone know how much the human population  
affected that process? Certainly, the starlings likely would not have  
come had there been no human population, but do there exist records  
of mountain bluebird numbers in the valley, correlated with the  
growth of the human population? If the bluebirds were here in the  
'30's, presumably they were here before the pioneers arrived in 1850.

Lynn Garner

On Jun 18, 2007, at 12:23 PM, Joseph wrote:

>  Only after people have driven out the native
> species is there an environmental niche for a starling.