HAS Members Dead and Dying Bird Alert

[Annette Pasek]

Hello caring HAS members,

This week on Connecticut Ornithological Association “ctbirds" daily digest there has been a list of ongoing conversations on ill or dying birds.

If you haven’t already seen the bird alert thread on "Dead and Dying Birds" you may want to read on.  After clicking on the link below, I was able to input two records of expired birds that I had encountered over the past week.  Birds that I believe were more than worthy of reporting.  This data entering process had only a few questions.

"Message: 1
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2021 17:16:57 -0400
From: Stuart Winquist 
Subject: [CT Birds] Re: Dead and Dying Birds Alert
To: Patrick Comins
Cc: Birds CT <ctb...@lists.ctbirding.org>
Message-ID: <95C9CEC8-8BA9-4272...@sbcglobal.net>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset=utf-8

https://nationalzoo.si.edu/migratory-birds/news/mysterious-bird-deaths-mid-atlantic-region

There is speculation that this may be related in the mid-Atlantic to birds feeding on the 17 year cicada hatch.  Article link above.  I heard an interview with a biologist on NPR, so you can also google and find that link.

Unfortunately if it is a man-made environmental contamination,  there are several high profile cases with birds and fish dying that took 10-25 years of science to discover the man-made cause.  There is a link in the article to report bird deaths.

Stuart"

If you would like further information you can find it on the COA daily ctbirds discussion of birds.  The thread began on Wednesday the 30th, starting with the following announcement.

"In April, reports of songbird deaths came from the mid-Atlantic Region.   Recently there is a major event ongoing in Indiana. This is affecting birds of many species, not just the finches. You can Google for more info, as it doesn’t like me sending links to the Listserve.

I recently received a report of lot of dead birds being found in peoples yards in Milford.  There is of yet no known cause of this mortality event, but birds are often observed with crusty eyes and appear to have neurological damage.  Please keep an eye out for such symptoms.

DEEP Wildlife is aware of the issue and I will pass along further guidance when we receive more information.  In the mean-time, it might not be a bad idea to take down or stop filling feeders or at a minimum make sure they are clean.  Bird baths are another possible vector of spread if this is in fact a pathogen.  Some of the more modern pesticides can be very toxic to birds so that is another avenue being investigated.

Patrick

Patrick Comins, Executive Director Connecticut Audubon Society."

Thank you for helping our birds, 

Annette Pasek

HAS President

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[Annette Pasek]

Dear HAS Member,

Apologies to those new members that are receiving their first email, as this is a somber subject.  I have been hearing from a number of organization on reporting data for dead and dying mid-atlantic songbirds and most recently received the following from Tom Anderson Communications Director at CT Audubon Society.

"Annette,

You're probably doing this already, but encourage people to report dead birds here:http://www.cfwwildbirdmortalityreporting.ct.gov/"

This is a DEEP website link.  I have included the original email below, that I shared with our membership last week.  Read the original HAS email to understand more about these circumstances regarding this emerging songbird illness.

I will be re-reporting six expired birds to DEEP myself, if anyone needs support with this process I will provide assistance with entering the data.

Thank you for your help with this serious matter,

Annette Pasek

HAS President