What's going on with this finch? (1 Viewer)

Avian conjunctivitis, caused by the bacterium Mycoplasma gallisepticum.

A disease chronic to House and Purple Finches. Make sure your feeders are cleaned frequently as it is a catchable disease.

Oh NO!! Poor little guy. Is that all I need to be doing here, cleaning my feeders regularly? I already do that, once every 2 weeks or more frequently on some feeders when they need it (like the platform, it usually needs cleaning every few days). Is cleaning the feeders every 2 weeks with a solution of 1 part bleach 9 parts water sufficient enough to combat this? What about antibiotics in the bird bath, should I look into doing that? I have liquid Baytril (Enrofloxacin Fluoroquinolone Antibiotic) for pigeons available to me at the local shop, it's to treat Myco… but I am not sure if this would be dangerous for the rest of the birds, I worry that the ones that aren't sick would build an immunity to it or something.


I know Mr Finch didn't get his disease at my feeder since I only had House finches up until a few weeks ago, then a huge flock of Purples just showed up. I've never seen any birds at my feeder with eyes like this before the purple guy appeared. But my feeding station is very active with a nice variety of birds, I am very worried about the rest of them now.

Don't get carried away with your worrying.

As long as the Purple Finches are still feeding there, I would do a cleaning once a week. I can't answer your question on antibiotics but perhaps a nature rehabber in your area could answer your questions on that. Until you get a straight answer, I would not feed them anything in the form of drugs of any kind.

Be wary of using the antibiotics.

They may help this finch but if an immunity develops in bacteria that is in the vicinity it may lead to a "much harder to kill bacteria" causing more widespread issues...