Where have you heard that? This field research looking at the problem, with pictures of the dead birds in question, does not indicate that's the problem https://twitter.com/salasphorus/status/1304973085833981952, and that the problem is starvation. It may be starvation driven by fleeing smoke/climate, but that would just be uninformed speculation.
We live in the bowl of Pasadena a few miles (~6) from the Bobcat fire. Current AQI is 343.
We have a lot of hummingbirds in our yard usually. We do a lot of planter boxing farming and gardening. For the past three days we’ve seen most of the hummingbirds on the ground in clover instead of in our trees where they normally are.
We’ve been wondering if they are flying low to avoid smoke or if they are being impeded by smoke inhalation. :(
Looking at it, and the extent I begin to wonder about the global implications of that. Probably doesn't rise as high as a volcanic eruption or nuclear mushroom, but this is massive.
It would make sense. Most areas in California are covered in a cloud of smoke so thick it looks like fog. Where I live in San Diego it's been that way for the past week.
I moved from SF to Boulder over the last weekend. At the end of my first day driving in Wendover UT, the smoke was still so thick we could look at the sun directly with no eye protection. It was just dull red. In Boulder, there is STILL a haze, though there are local fires that are also adding to it.
