From the coasts to the plains, bird flu could threaten not just birds – but their homes

Adam Hauldren/Getty Yesterday, I woke to a cold, damp Canberra morning – and silence. The trees around my home were empty of feathered silhouettes. Even the usual bright-eyed, warble-voiced magpies were absent. The next morning, they were back. I don’t know why they went AWOL. But their absence felt like a taste of what might come as the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu spreads in Australia, affecting both birds and mammals. Conservationists once asked: what is a bird without a tree to nest in?…