Photo by Paige Burns Clark
A sick goldfinch sits on a bird bath.
The pandemic experience this past year has taken some long established, though somewhat niche, hobbies to new levels. With more bread baking there came a shortage of yeast in the grocery store. With all the people canning, there was a global shortage of Ball jar canning lids. An increase in bird watching, and associated bird feeding, has caused sales of bird seed, bird houses, and other accessories to go “through the roof” according to an Audubon report last summer. For one national company that manufactures bird feeders and related items, sales in the first six months of 2020 increased more than 50% over the same period the previous year.
But now, people are finding songbirds dead, or sick, in their yards.
Over the past three weeks I found two dead house finch in my yard. Over the weekend, I saw a goldfinch, clearly not well, sitting abnormally still on my birdbath. I posted a photo to a Facebook bird group I belong to, asking for advice and help. The response: catch the poor bird, so it won’t infect others, and take down your feeders for at least two weeks.
Unbeknownst to me, there’s a pandemic of another sort going on, coursing through the songbird population, hitting finches of different types especially hard. The very nice lady at the NC Wildlife Resources Commission shared information about the problem. Two diseases are causing rising numbers of dead birds: Avian conjunctivitis and Salmonellosis. Both diseases are spread through infected feces, and are made more contagious by the aggregating behavior of birds at feeders, especially this time of year. I have probably dozens of goldfinch at my two feeders every day, and have been going through about 28 pounds of seed weekly this spring. In addition to goldfinch I have white breasted nuthatch, cardinals, chickadees, house finch, and even the occasional red bellied woodpecker (plus, ground feeders like juncos and mourning dove).
Salmonellosis, also called salmonella disease, is a common bacterial disease and can affect all warm blooded animals, including dogs, cats, and humans. Affected birds will appear listless and “fluffed up”, with swollen eyelids. Unfortunately there is no recovery for birds with this disease. Avian Conjunctivitis, also a bacterial disease, affects the eyes of birds, making them swollen, teary and red, much like pink eye in humans, although unlike salmonella, avian conjunctivitis cannot cross over into humans or other mammals. While not necessarily lethal, conjunctivitis often leads to the death of the bird due to weakness from being unable to feed, or predation from hawks or other predators.
What is a bird lover to do? Though it broke my heart, I took down my bird feeders. In two weeks (allowing time for the disease hot spot in my yard to die down) I’ll follow the recommendation to clean and disinfect feeders with a 10% bleach solution (one part bleach to 9 parts water), allowing them to air dry before re-hanging. This process should be done weekly during periods where birds are really aggregating strongly, as they are now, and at a minimum between each season.
Other recommendations from the NC Wildlife Resources Commission include: put out only enough food as the birds will eat in one day, to minimize the potential for buildup of the bacteria in the leftover seed. These diseases can be spread on the ground as well, with dropped seed and feces. When possible, try to avoid seed mixes with fillers like millet and milo (small round seed which is inexpensive and used as filler in many seed mixes). The milo often gets ignored in favor of the better seed, and can be a source of the disease over time. Keeping species specific seeds in different feeders keeps the different types of birds from gathering at the same feeder (for example, thistle in a goldfinch feeder and black sunflower seed in another) to minimize the number of birds at a feeder.
Finally, and perhaps the best option: consider installing landscape plantings that can feed your birds, rather than having to rely so much on purchased seed (which can get expensive, believe you me). Great landscape plants for our area that also supply food for birds include the shrub American Beauty-berry, beech and elm trees, American holly, American witch-Hazel, and Black walnut, just to name a few. Visit Audubon.org to see the entire list and what species of birds are attracted to each.
For more information about landscaping for birds and wildlife, contact NC Cooperative Extension, Richmond County Center at 910-997-8255. Visit our website at Richmond.ces.ncsu.edu and follow us on Facebook.