Clean Those Feeders and Baths!

Many of us feed birds during the summer. Almost all of us have a bird bath. Although we all know it is important to keep our feeders and bird baths clean, sometimes we're not as diligent as we should be. But these cleaning tasks are vital to the health of the birds we enjoy.

In the summer, the stress on the birds, especially in our drought-ridden area, means they have lowered immune systems. One disease that often takes hold is trichomoniasis (trich)--most commonly in pigeons and doves, which are very susceptible to this disease. The raptors that feed on these birds also tend to get trich. This is not the same trichomoniasis as found in people.

Trichomoniasis is very contagious and highly fatal in birds. It progresses very rapidly. If you find a dove on the ground that is extremely emaciated, even though it has been eating, it is very possible trich is the culprit. Often you can see a yellowish, curd-like growth inside their mouths. If you see this, you know you have trich. A large number of extremely emaciated doves with no visible signs of injury are coming in to Wild Bird Rescue, suspicious for trich.

If you find a dead dove or pigeon in your yard that may have contracted trich, take down your feeders immediately and empty your bird bath. Leave everything down for 10 days. What you are doing here is dispersing the birds from your yard at least and allowing time for the infected birds to die. Before you refill your bird bath and feeders, clean them thoroughly and disinfect with a 1:10 bleach solution. I am not a big chlorine bleach fan, but it works well as a disinfectant.

Watching these birds waste away is heartbreaking. Clean your feeders regularly and watch for signs of trich in your backyard birds. You didn't cause the disease, but you can help prevent it from spreading.

Good birding!

Do You Feed Birds in the Summer?

Photo by Jim Conrad, Wikimedia Common

I feed birds all year around, although I cut back substantially in the summer time, only keeping a couple of feeders going to attract birds to the yeard so I can see them.

It is just as important to keep your feeders clean in the summer as in the winter. We have been having doves (especially white-winged doves shown in the photo) coming in to Wild Bird Rescue extremely emaciated. We have checked for trich, but there is no sign. The best guess from the symptons is aflatoxin from a fungus that grows in seed when it is hot and humid--the perfect description of our weather over the past month. Although the humidity is starting to drop, it is still unusually humid for our area over the summer.

Store your bird seed in a clean, dry place if possible. Clean and disinfect your feeders weekly. This will help prevent aflatoxins and other diseases that pass from bird to bird.

Also, many of you are trying to attract hummingbirds. The sugar water mixtures we feed are very prone to breeding harmful bacteria, especially in the heat. Replace your nectar every three days. preferably before it develops a cloudy appearance. Clean and disinfect at least once a week. If you feel you are throwing away a lot of sugar water, mix only half as much at a time.

We all enjoy watching the birds in our yard. In return we should do our best to keep them healthy.

Good birding!

Keep Feeders and Feeding Areas Clean

When you feed birds, it is important to keep feeders and the ground around the feeders clean.

Feeders should be cleaned no less than every other week (I would suggest making it a weekly chore). Wash them thoroughly with hot, soapy water and allow to air dry before refilling.

You can reduce the mess under your feeder (this is under one of my sunflower feeders after just a couple of days) by feeding seeds without the hulls. This is more expensive per pound in the bag, but considering the weight of the hulls on the ground and the chore of cleaning up, the extra cost is probably worth it. However, as much as I feed, I have always felt the birds should have to do some of the work by shelling their own seeds. Seeds on the ground under the feeders get wet and moldy, and not good for the birds.

Around January I'll begin getting calls from people who tell me they have a bird (usually a dove) who monopolizes a feeder and eats constantly. We will also get emaciated birds people bring in that they insist have been eating like pigs, but just fell to the ground. We will also start getting calls from people asking about blind birds (usually finches) at their feeders.

These birds have trich (doves) or conjunctivitis (finches). These are common, highly contagious diseases that are spread by contact, often with feeders and food the infected birds have been around. This is the reason it is so important to clean your feeders and feeding areas. If you have an outbreak of trich or conjunctivitis, take your feeders down and clean them thoroughly (in this circumstance, I would also rinse in bleach water, allow to dry and then rinse in clean water), clean up the area, and do not rehang the feeders for 10 days. This will allow the diseased birds to die off and not reinfect your feeders as soon as you rehang them. This seems cold-hearted, but is necessary to keep infection from spreading.

Enjoy feeding your backard birds, but keep the area clean.

Good birding!

Mussel Watch at Gordon Lake

I went out to Gordon Lake in Iowa Park to look for mussels. I got skunked on mussels, but it was as good an excuse as any to go birdwatching as well.

I got out a little late. I set the time at 9 AM for the mussel watch so others wouldn't have to get up so early, since I have been fussed at about the time in the past. Since no one else came (for the second time in as many watches), I am thinking after the next one in July, I am going to suit myself and go earlier in the day. Less hot and better birding.

Anyway, there were no extra special birds, but I did see the following in addition to the domestic ducks in the park: Canada geese (at least 50), great blue heron, chimney swift, barn swallows, cliff swallows, killdeer, scissor-tailed flycatcher, mallard ducks, Western kingbird, great-tailed grackles, mourning doves, white-winged doves, Eurasian collared doves, rock pigeons, red-winged blackbirds, purple martins, and house sparrows.

There were two baby barn swallows on a barn branch overlooking the lake being fed by their parents. There were also a couple of fledgling purple martins on a wire.

It should be a good year for the dove hunters. There were hundreds of doves (mostly white-winged) in the fields around the lake.

Good birding!