About a week and a half ago Rick spied this poor little goldfinch at one of our feeders. It broke my heart as soon as I saw him because I recognized the signs of a very sick bird. He was puffed out, a little too tame, and was showing labored breathing. I had been reading about the salmonella outbreak on many of the blogs due to the irruption of Pine Siskins and was hoping our area would stay safe, but I guess not. I stopped feeding the birds and luckily haven’t seen another infected bird. Maybe he had something else.
If it were a very cold winter’s day he would
look cute all fluffed up, but even then, you can
see in his eye that he doesn’t feel well.
We didn’t find his body anywhere in the yard,
so maybe he survived, or flew off somewhere.
It was heartbreaking to watch his labored breathing.
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8 comments:
I know how you feel Kelly. I actually found a dead Goldfinch too when I was disinfecting everything from the Siskin Salmonella outbreak. It surely sounds like this little one has it.
Oh how sad. I read about the outbreak but it didn't (so far) seem to be in our area. Oh how sad. I hope he's alright. How awful for him. Hard to see but it makes it more real. Thanks for helping me to understand.
This always breaks my heart - poor finch! I'll be diligent about continuing to check my birdies and feeders.
Poor thing. I never know what to think when I see a puffed up bird just sitting.
He/She does not look very good. Do you know if it survived?
Well, the only thing we can say is that it is nature anyway, we call that selection!! Only the fittest survive.
How very sad. I was heartbroken when I saw finches in my garden in the same state last year and dread seeing it again.
Kelly, looks like the effects are similar to the trichomonad parasite, which affects Greenfinches etc. Here is a link:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/helpingbirds/health/sickbirds/greenfinches.asp
Impossible to control apart from normal feeding hygeine.
...I'm happy to report the days continue to tick by with no more sick birds. Thank goodness!! Maybe the sick little fellow was an isolated case.
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