Aug
Avian Conjuctivitis
Posted in Birding | No Comments »I’m not sure what qualifications make one a “bird expert”, but I have been feeding birds several times a day for almost five years. And for days, almost weeks, I’ve been putting off writing this post. So let’s get it over with.
I found a dead bird in the front yard where my ground feeder and window feeder was. First off, I live in the desert, in a new community, where there aren’t many birds. I’m mainly feeding Sparrows, Finches and Doves. When I went to dispose of the dead bird, I noticed his eyes were….. diseased looking. I simply thought it was a decaying issue.
Lately we’ve been getting a lot of crickets, which eat the leftover bird food, thus bringing scorpions. I told my brother I was going to wean the birds off of the food and stop feeding them. He insisted it wasn’t a bird food problem and advised me a baby bird was relying on the food supply I had been putting out. So I continued to feed them.
A few days after he told me about the baby bird, I saw it eating from the small, decorative feeder I placed out in the yard. The bird looked like a Finch. Several baby Doves had been born as well, so I was glad I decided to keep the feeder out (see feeder below with a healthy adult Dove).
The “baby” bird, I noticed, started to flop around when it walked. It sat in the feeder, eating, but I noticed it having difficulty. I walked over to it and noticed it had only, what appeared to be, one eye. At first I thought it was simply learning to fly. Then I thought it may have been attacked. It didn’t see very well because I could walk up right to it and pick it. I didn’t, of course. When it did happen to see me, it rolled around in the yard in the rocks trying to find safety. It flapped its wings, but couldn’t fly.
This devistated me. I couldn’t sleep during and after all of this. This bird was a fighter. I didn’t know what to do for it; so I kept feeding it. It struggled for about two days before it died. I still haven’t stopped thinking about how horrible it was for this bird to try and survive in the desert, one, and two, half blinded, looking for food.
First of all, here is a link regarding Avian Conjuctivitis (or Finch Disease). There is much more information on the web.
Like I said, I am not an expert, but it seemed so coincidental, the one bird I found dead, and the second bird I witnessed having problems. Here is a picture of the second bird I found dead (notice the crusty eye):
My point is, clean your feeders! I obviously didn’t clean my feeders enough. All websites say to stop feeding for a week (even to the injured bird). They say healthy birds will find food, while diseased birds will die out. I took the feeders away, but fed my injured bird on the ground, like I said above (I felt bad not feeding it)! I also didn’t go a week without feeding my other birds; I went two days. I cleaned the yard and moved my feeders to prevent a buildup of droppings on the ground. I place my ground feeder in a different spot every morning.
For a bird bath here in Arizona, I use a simple house plant water tray.
If several birds feed at one station, this could be a cause of disease. In the years I have been feeding birds, I have never had this problem, but for birds in desperate need of food and water (like the desert), several birds may flock to feeders. What I do now is (and this seems like a pain), I bring in my water “bowl” and tray/ground feeders every night and clean them with antibacterial dish soap. Once a week I use a bleach solution to really clean them. I have a hose nearby and safely tuck them into the garage at night to, one, clean them. Two, keep the crickets out of them. And three, keep mosquitoes at bay.
For this bird’s sake, and all others, please clean your feeders! Those books aren’t lying when they say so! For more information, please visit Avian Web. Some birds are genetically inclined to eye disease, but please, to be safe, clean your feeders.
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