Dead garden birds!

I stay in Harland Road in Castletown. Over the last couple of weeks I have been coming across poorly birds (approx 8) in my garden which end up dying. It seems to be all finches (goldfinches, greenfinches & chaffinches). The only fatalities i've ever had before is ones that fly into the glass doors and windows, but it's not the case this time. They all seem to have the same symptoms, fluffed up, lethargic, eventually unable to fly away, still trying to feed, difficulty in swallowing and seed stuck around the beak. One chaffinch had a visible lump on the side of its neck. I went on to the RSPB website and all the symptoms seem to match up with Cankur. Yesterday I emptied all my feeders into the bin and scrubbed everything with a bleach solution and I will stop feeding them for about 2 weeks (this is what the site advises). I have kept the last 2 birds and I am going to put them up to the lab at Janetstown tomorrow to find out for sure what is killing them. I spoke to my neighbour today, who also feeds the birds, if she has come across any dead ones in her garden, and she has had 4. She has now taken down her feeders also. We have collared doves that come to the garden also, and I had a poorly one which died about a month ago, and wondered maybe if they have the disease and have passed it on to the finches. If you know of anyone else in my area who feeds the birds can you please let them know. I will post the results when I get them.

Interesting. I'll clean my bird table just in case. The birds seem to be eating as much seed now as during the winter. Although it was minus 3.2 in Halkirk two nights ago, chilly for May. Look forward to your results.

Aw what a shame!

I have found a few dead Greenfinch over the years but, thankfully, not many. I know they are prone to Salmonella so assumed it was this.

It is really important to keep feeders and feeding areas clean to prevent disease. I clean the feeders regulary with soap and water and then with a steam cleaner as this kills all bacteria etc.
I also got a powder from CJ Wildbirdfood which you sprinkle around the feeding area.

Lets hope it doesn't spread to many other birds and thanks for the warning. Well done for being so responsible.

Thanks for the warning. I'm afraid my feeders are due for a clean so will make sure I do them before re-filling as I really love all my little birds, even if they will drop all over the door step.

Funnily enough we had a similar thing with a dead robin followed a week later by a dead hen. (One of our own). We were very concerned about the possibility of bird flu but now a couple of months on the bird population and remaining hens are healthy. We have a very healthy blue tit population as well as finches, house martins and the usual blackbirds, starlings and crows. I'd love to know if the robin and hen were connected or just co-incidence

GNG

No results as yet - hopefully Monday.

Results are in - the finches died of E-coli and there was also Rahnella Aquatilis (fresh water bacteria) present in 2 of them. Apparently it is common at this time of year for finches to get E-coli. I have decided not to feed them all year round and go back to feeding over the winter months only. Gonna miss watching ma birdies :(

Thanks for giving us the results.

What a shame you can't feed them during the summer.:(

If you had a steamer this would kill e-coli on feeders etc. I use this in combination with a powder for sprinkling around their feeding area and something to put in their water and, hopefully, this will prevent disease.

Poor Birdies, I have seen similar before and had it happen in our garden, little birds get all fluffed up and lathargic, normally stay around the feeding area and seem to sleep a lot.

I was always told it was salmonella, but guess Ecoli would be about the same. The problem is that the birds pass it on via the feeding station, so all you can do is withdraw food for a while and disinfect everything, and its supposed to be a good idea to move things around a bit every so often as the areas around the feeders can also get contaminated. Good luck with it.

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Originally Posted by doyle

I stay in Harland Road in Castletown. Over the last couple of weeks I have been coming across poorly birds (approx 8) in my garden which end up dying. It seems to be all finches (goldfinches, greenfinches & chaffinches). The only fatalities i've ever had before is ones that fly into the glass doors and windows, but it's not the case this time. They all seem to have the same symptoms, fluffed up, lethargic, eventually unable to fly away, still trying to feed, difficulty in swallowing and seed stuck around the beak. One chaffinch had a visible lump on the side of its neck. I went on to the RSPB website and all the symptoms seem to match up with Cankur. Yesterday I emptied all my feeders into the bin and scrubbed everything with a bleach solution and I will stop feeding them for about 2 weeks (this is what the site advises). I have kept the last 2 birds and I am going to put them up to the lab at Janetstown tomorrow to find out for sure what is killing them. I spoke to my neighbour today, who also feeds the birds, if she has come across any dead ones in her garden, and she has had 4. She has now taken down her feeders also. We have collared doves that come to the garden also, and I had a poorly one which died about a month ago, and wondered maybe if they have the disease and have passed it on to the finches. If you know of anyone else in my area who feeds the birds can you please let them know. I will post the results when I get them.

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Interesting that - we get an awful lot of greenfinches out here at Strathy Point - we have a large 12 ft x 10 ft x 6 ft high 'cage' made of 2 inch wire mesh.. It allows the smaller birds to get into the hangers and bird table, without being mobbed by the rooks, seagulls and rock doves.. 'our' greenfinches seem to winter over - had about fifty stay through. They seem bigger than the usual, maybe toughened up by the conditions here.

Anyway on 3rd December found a dead greenfinch on our lawn - looked like been killed by a cat, we were intrigued how small it was, then noticed it had a leg tag, so sent details to London.. just had full details back of 'our' bird.. it appears it had been ringed 782 days before dying, and we were a bit surprised to see it had been ringed on 12 Oct 2008 at Shebster!, did 19 kms.. no much of a traveller that one!

I must admit I was beginning to fear the worst as I replenished my two Niger Seed feeders last week (I had given them a break once the hard ground was soft again), only tyo find that they were totally untouched by ANYTHING for the first time ever.

But as from Monday they were once again swamped with finches: mostly Goldfinches with less that the usual amount of Greenfinches, but with more Siskins than I've ever had. I suppose if you multiply the dead birds occurring in gardens where people don't take any great interest the numbers of birds suffering from this type of thing is bound to add up, along side the harsh winter conditions taking their usual toll.

Well done for being vigilant and thorough in getting the source(s) identified.

All the best, HR

This was on autumn watch and the poor greenfinches are suffering from a disease where they are unable to feed. Best thing is to keep cleaning the feeders as this is easily passed from bird to bird via the feeders. Keep putting food out for them though even though they look like they are struggling to feed.

trichomonosis is what is probably killing them they sound to have all the symptoms poor birds