Wildbird broken legs mystery

Daisyandtom

I have various breeds of birds that visit my garden each year, every year and throughout the year. There are some who are mutually familiar and there's a certain amount of trust as they introduce their young. I have several bird tables for different breeds with their accessibility by size, so that each can feed and drink without competition, threat from another breed or chance of a larger bird hoovering everything up in 2 gulps. All sizes have access to food and it's almost as if they know this as none attempt any break-ins or bullying on other feeding stations.

I keep notes and take photos but I'm not an expert or have time to study ornithology, I just enjoy watching them a lot.

However, there is an anomaly this year. Many of the birds have got broken legs. Wagtails, Starlings and crows (among others) have a noticeable amount of broken legs amongst their groups. They have each survived the injury and feed and drink normally.

I'm in a rural area, I don't have any cats nor do my immediate neighbours. Although there a 2 cats that do wander across from time to time but dart away when they see a human. They cross the garden and I've never seen them scheming. I moved here 6 years ago and the cats have been here as long as the birds have been visiting. I can't fathom why this year in particular there are many more birds with broken legs.

Can anyone shed any light on this ? I've tried to give as much information as I can. Does anyone have a similar situation ? Or any ornithologists out there that might be able to answer the mystery ?

I hope so, if there's anything that I'm am doing, not doing or should be doing - I'd like to know.

Thanks !

Spear

This has nothing to with boards.ie. Try asking in a forum that's related to the topic instead, such as the Zoology forum:

https://www.boards.ie/categories/zoology