On Tuesday, 27 August 2019 11:50:57 UTC+1, T i m wrote:
On Tue, 27 Aug 2019 05:41:01 +0100, Richard
wrote:

On 26/08/2019 21:37, T i m wrote:
On Mon, 26 Aug 2019 16:54:47 +0100, Richard
wrote:

snip

Of course they do, every time they grab some and kill it. The RSPB
only suggest that cats aren't uniquely responsible for any decline in
bird numbers in general but without a doubt there would be more birds
about if cats weren't.

Cars kill more birds than cats do.

Cite, OOI?

I did, at around 18:40

Where your 2014 link looks more like 1997 ... and as pointed out by
others, only reflects a very selective (and not typically
representative) stretch of road.

And I have posted some links that indicate *way* more birds are killed
by cats than cars.

But that's not really the point. If you wanted to make one from that
the chances are that many cat owners also drive so are going to be
killing more birds than the owners of most (if not all) other pets.

Cheers, T i m

Reduced habitate and lower number of insects is what's 'killing' birds
The reduction of nesting sites is the result of intensive farming and pesticides. Even then most birds killed by cats are those birds that are ill or fallen out their nests so wouldn't survive anyway.
One of the biggestes killers of owls are cars that drive too fast down country roads creating 'wakes' which owls being very light in weight can;t escape from.

if you look at the bird species in decline you'd have to be pretty stupid to claim it's due to the rise in the number of cats which hasn't risen that much in the last 20 years and if anyhting has been in decline.

Over the last five years the number of pets in the UK has declined. The pet population peaked in 2013 at 71 million, but as of 2018 is estimated to be around 51 million. ... The United Kingdom is a nation of pet lovers, with 45 percent of the population owning some sort of animal.
€¢ Pet population in the UK 2009-2018 | Statista

https://www.statista.com ۼ estimated-pet-population-in-the-united-kingdom-uk