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Sick Greenfinches Again - advice please (1 Viewer)

songbird6666

Registered User
Some of you may remember back in the winter how I had an awful problem here with Greenfinches dropping like flies and how upsetting it all was for me. At the time I read the articles kindly provided by alcedo.atthis (Malky) concerning salmonella, and was certain that was what my flock had. Well it's happening again. Five at least in the past week, one my neighbour put out of its misery for me (I just can't bring myself) one a cat or hawk got after I had been trying to feed him all day on the ground, and last night, the most heartbreaking of all, a tiny hen which I had perched on my finger for over an hour with her head tucked under her wing, finally went into the death convulsions and reduced me to tears as always.

The thing is, I know I should stop all feeding at present, disinfect everywhere but that would be very difficult, I feed in four different places in my garden, and only one is paved, the rest is on grass. But what about all my other birds that aren't affected? The ones it has taken me five years to encourage (the goldfinches) my siskins, collared doves, my tame blackbird, and robins? At this moment I am looking out at some 30-plus house sparrows in just one of my feeding areas outside my lounge window, they are sunbathing on the lawn, playing in the blackcurrent bushes, bathing in my new birdbath .... I haven't replenished any of my feeders today with a view to stopping the feeding, I know it would probably be the right thing to do, to disperse the flock of finches, but would I just be shifting the problem elsewhere, a case of out of sight, out of mind? They will just die in someone else's garden, although I don't know of anywhere else in the village that does feed them. I know it's going to break my heart seeing the rows of little disappointed faces in the morning if all the feeders are gone or empty. I also have to put out a certain amount of food, as I have three free range chickens in my garden, they mainly eat corn or the wild bird seed though.

I have to say that none of this problem ever arose until I started using the sunflower hearts, and I saw an article last night after a google search where another chap had come to the same conclusion, although he was in Canada I believe.

Sorry this post is so long, but please someone tell me what I must do for the best, I feel so down, birds in my garden are such a great part of my life. |=(|
 
Distressing this must be for you, if it is only affecting the Greenfinches, I guess you need to really know what's going on before stopping feeding - is it possible to take one of the dead to a vet for an autopsy to identify the cause? If that is possible you might be able to get better advice.

You mention you also have free-range chickens - do they inhabit the same areas as the bird feeders? Could the Greenfinches be picking up something from them? This is pure hypothesis - not saying anything about the chicken's health, just putting something maybe to think about.

Hope you find a remedy soon
 
Are you using seed trays with your feeders? You know, the sort that screw on to the bottom.

I was having the same problem as you and noticed that although the seed trays do a good job by letting more birds feed at a time, droppings from the birds on the perches were falling directly on to the tray and seeds underneath. Although I cleaned these trays regularly maybe it's an impossible task to keep them hygenic.

Having removed these trays, I haven't had the problem since.

Hope this helps.

Steve
 
Would it not be possible to used a new site to place your feeders for now - until you can get to the root of the problem?

As Jos suggests, maybe you could take a couple of the dead birds for testing, to find out what exactly is causing the deaths?
 
Sorry, I should have mentioned that when this problem happened in January or February, I did take two birds to be pm'd at the V.I.C. and it was salmonella, the symptoms are exactly the same this time, so I think I can be pretty sure it is still prevalent. Since I wrote this post earlier, I have been having a good think, (it was hard to think straight before because I have had a splitting headache for two days which was making me feel worse) I have disinfected my feeders and the paved area and bird table in one place and have decided to make that the only place I feed from now on. To be honest, I have made a rod for my own back and it has become a bit of a chore for months with the four lots of feeders, drinkers etc, not to mention the money it's been costing me, in excess of £20 a week, and I just couldn't go on. So I decided that they will all have to feed in the one spot or go without, and I will only have one each of peanuts, sunflower hearts, niger and wildbird seed. At least here I can scrub and disinfect the paving slabs. At present I am using about 17 different feeders altogether, and that is cut down from what I use in the winter! I think this will help for now anyway, but I am still open to other views.

Steve - I don't use feeders with trays under, except for one with niger seed.
 
songbird said:
At present I am using about 17 different feeders altogether, and that is cut down from what I use in the winter! I think this will help for now anyway, but I am still open to other views.

Steve - I don't use feeders with trays under, except for one with niger seed.
Blimey songbird, 17 different feeders? I don't think there will be any harm done at all if you cut down on the feeders. Why don't you try cutting down to 5 or 6 for now, then even cutting it further to, say, four?

Goodl luck!
 
Not that this may be applicable to your salmonella problem in the UK, Songbird, but here in northeast AZ we had a problem two years ago with pine siskins and house finches dying. Turned out it was a contaminated birdseed mix that contained cracked corn (the source of the salmonella), which was immediately recalled. Fortunately, it wasn't a brand I used, but we still had a half dozen sick and dying birds in our own yard.

Hope the source of the contamination is found. There's just no more helpless feeling than watching an animal suffer, especially when they can't tell you what's wrong.
 
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