The Lincolnshire Bird Club

There seems to have been an unusually large number of Greenfinches that appear to be ill, fluffed up and unwilling to move, in our garden at Hemswell; we have found about 7 birds dead in the garden over the past month or two. In addition, my mother-in-law has found a couple of dead Greenfinch in her garden at Scampton.

Has anybody else noticed an increase in Greenfinch mortality in their area? Is this just a local problem, or is it more widespread?

Hi Steve,

In issue 48 of the BTO Newsletter Bird Table there is an article about Garden Bird Health. It says " nearly 1,000 Garden BirdWatch volunteers have been collecting very detailed information on the ways in which they are presenting food for visiting birds and managing their hygeine routines.

During the first six months of the project [October 2005-March 2006] GBWatchers reported some 838 mortality incidents. These involved 37 different species of bird and most were thought to be the result of predation, typically Cat or Sparrowhawk, or trauma, often involving windows.

Greenfinch is the species for which we have received the most Trichomonas-related reports this summer. Birds suffering from the disease show signs typical of general illness, namely appearing lethargic, fluffed-up and reluctant to leave feeding stations. In addition the birds may have difficulty swallowing, drool saliva or regurgitate food. To finish they urge people to thoroughly clean all feeding and watering equipment, with disinfectant [refer to the GBHi booklet] Remember to wear rubber gloves while cleaning feeders and thoroughly wash hands and forearms afterwards with soap and water. Avoid handling sick or dead birds directly."

For more advice visit the following pages:
www.bto.org/gbw/NEWS/disease_outbreak.htm or http://www.ufaw.org.uk/gbhi.php

Hope this helps.

Max

In my garden in the west mids. we lost all our Greenfinches from our feeders for several months other birds unaffected, now I clean trays regulary and they are just starting to come back. At Saltfleet we still get good numbers of Greenfinches but Jackdaws are a problem, swiping all the food in seconds.
Geoff

Max,

Thanks for the info, I've now cleaned all the bird-feeding stations in the garden. I feel awful that I may have contributed to the deaths of these birds.

I am now doing a good clean of the feeder weekly. Before putting new food out, I always clean the ground feeders round with water and scrub the doodah off with an old toothbrush. I also have disinfectant ordered from Haith's.

One of my Asperger's odd sensory intolerances is wearing rubber gloves, so it makes it rather challenging!

I would have thought wearing gloves of any kind is better than nothing.