Clean Your Feeders

This past week a House Finch with what may be conjunctivitis was spotted at one of our bird feeders. Conjunctivitis is a respiratory infection caused by a unique strain of the bacterium Mycoplasma gallisepticum. It is a common pathogen in domestic turkeys and chickens, and poses no known threats to humans.
This disease was first seen in House Finches 1993-94 in Virginia and Maryland. It then spread to states along the East Coast, and has now been reported throughout most of eastern North America, as far north as Quebec, Canada, and as far south as Florida. It has also rarely appeared in other bird species such as American Goldfinches, Purple Finches, Evening Grosbeaks, and Pine Grosbeaks; all of them are members of the family Fringillidae.

While at first it was an epidemic, knocking back almost half the population of House Finches in the east, it is now in restricted to a smaller percentage of the population, about 5% to 10% of the eastern House Finch population has this disease.

Birds that are infected with conjunctivitis have red, swollen, runny, or crusty eyes and in extreme cases the eyes become swollen shut or crusted over. This causes the bird become essentially blind. If the infected bird dies, it is usually not from the conjunctivitis itself, but rather from starvation, exposure, or predation as a result of not being able to see.

So what do you do when you see an infected bird? According to the House Finch Disease Survey conducted by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology you should:
Take down your feeders and clean them with a 10% bleach solution (1 part bleach and 9 parts water). Let them dry completely and then re-hang them. Also, rake underneath the feeder to remove old seed and bird droppings.

They also suggest these following these guidelines for feeder hanging to reduce the spread of any bird disease:


1) Space your feeders widely to discourage crowding. If crowding is an issue, such that your feeder or feeders cannot accommodate all the finches (or other birds) visiting them at one time, consider adding more feeders to reduce crowding.

2) Clean your feeders on a regular basis with a 10% bleach solution solution (1 part bleach and 9 parts water) and be sure to remove any build-ups of dirt around the food openings. Allow your feeders to dry completely before re-hanging them.

3) Rake the area underneath your feeder to remove droppings and old, moldy seed.

4) If you see one or two diseased birds, take your feeder down immediately and clean it with a 10% bleach solution.


To learn more about conjunctivitis and/or to take part in their survey see:
House Finch Disease Survey conducted by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology