Avian Pox, Squirrel Copulation, and Jay Food Stashing

Yesterday a male House Finch appeared at the feeder with what appears to be Avian Pox infecting the rear toe on his right foot.


The segmentation of the toe is visible though grossly swollen and the lesion is becoming rough and warty. This looks like the pox I've seen that infected a pigeon's foot. I caught the bird and the progression of the disease was that of Pigeon Pox. The lesion healed and after recuperation the bird was released healthy.
Therefore I'm making a presumptive diagnosis for this bird of Avian Pox.

Avian Pox is caused by an avipoxvirus. It's a slow developing disease that can be so mild as to be barely noticeable or severe enough to cause death. There are any number of strains of varying virulence and some strains are species specific. Previously when fewer strains had mutated or had been noticed at any rate, Avian Pox was broken down into three basic kinds: Pigeon Pox, Fowl Pox, and Canary Pox. (All birds that were kept by humans and therefore under closer scrutiny.) Eventually those pox were found to affect 60 avian species in 20 families. (Nope, humans don't get it. Okay, I haven't gotten it and no one else has gotten it either. It's an avian disease.) The species included everything from turkeys to occasionally raptors. Then in 1999, a flock of infected Black-capped Chickadees were noted in Europe. Though supposedly Avian Pox had been around forever, some people question this, it is considered an emerging avian illness in North America.
Though, possibly now as there are so many feeders, the birds are now close enough and observed often enough for the disease to be seen and tracked in wild birds.

At any rate sometime after the Chickadees, a new and in my opinion, better way to classify the disease came into play.

Now Avian Pox is only broken down into two types, cutaneous (dry)--like the finch above, and diphtheritic (wet).

Avian Pox lesions, eventually look rather warty, and affect the unfeathered areas of a bird's body.

If the lesion on the bird above, is the only infected area and it does not impede his ability to compete, the lesion will eventually open, drain, and scab over or shrink and dry out. If the bird avoids a bacterial infection in the open area, the spot will scar over and he'll go about his business good as new. Actually better than new as he will be immune to that strain of Avian Pox. Though if the lesion drains the detritus from that and the scabs are highly contagious. There is dispute about for how long, days to months, a surface or scab might remain infectious.
Some say warm humid weather is worse for pox. Other's say winter is worse. Basically there are any number of things that have not been utterly and categorically nailed down.

Mosquito's carry the pox for about 200 days after biting an infected bird and they pass the infection on when they bite later birds. A bird might also pick up pox by having a scratch that comes in contact with an infected surface or the virus on another bird. Or the Diptheritic form of the disease may be contracted by breathing the virus.

The Diptheritic form of Pox can be far more problematical as it can infect the mucus membranes, the mouth, the larynx, beak, and/or trachea. Beak integrity can be compromised particularly in Chipping Sparrows. Air flow can be cut off, eyesight obscured, or the ability to eat compromised either killing the bird outright or weakening it enough where it can't take care of itself.. Birds with this form often die.

And what does the Cornell Lab of Ornithology say?

"If a sick bird comes to your feeder, minimize the risk of infecting other birds by cleaning your feeder area thoroughly. If you see several diseased birds, take down all your feeders for at least a week to give the birds a chance to disperse. Remember that prevention is the key to avoiding the spread of disease. Regularly clean [my emphasis. D.B.] your feeders even when there are no signs of disease."

Follow the link for their recommendations on hygiene.

By the way, I do clean the surface of the patio very frequently. You just won't notice as the minute I finish and refill the feeders, the squirrels climb the screen or leap off the roof to the feeder and dump grand amounts on the patio looking for their favorites. No, I don't particularly attempt to fend off the squirrels. They have to eat too. Besides why make myself crazy?

A Black-capped Chickadee momentarily gets very near the infected Finch.


COPULATING SQUIRRELS, OR MORE FACTUALLY--
SQUIRRELS ATTEMPTING TO COPULATE
And now for something a least slightly more cheerful.

Here we have two young squirrels attempting to figure out how to copulate. First one would run up behind the other and try. Then the one previously on the bottom would run over and attempt to try from the top. They never did look to be successful but I'm sure they'll figure it out eventually. Notice Bottom is concentrating. She'll give it a try in a moment .

I do love the feather pattern on the back of a Blue Jay.

But this isn't about feathers, it's about my getting the binoculars on this Blue Jay as he sat on the telephone wire. When I focused in on him, I saw that he had a hefty kernel of field corn in his beak. I watched, he didn't swallow it. He just perched on the wire, scanned the area for a few moments, holding the corn right there near the tip of his beak. That's odd, I thought.

Then Blue Jay bounced down into the branches 10 feet from what I've taken to be an old squirrel's nest. Blue Jay looked at me. I retreated further into the shadows inside the house. He then bounced over to the leaves, his head went down, he then flew out of my sight line and then to the bath for a drink. Somewhere in there, he may have stashed his piece of corn. Drinking through corn wouldn't work all that well. Yes, he could have swallowed it.

Though he did look like he was up to something. Hmm. Besides the Blue Jay I've seen both a squirrel and a Crow take special interest in that spot. Was the Blue Jay periodically raiding another animal's stash, and caching the booty in a new spot?

I'll see if I can find out.

Donegal Browne

The Feeder and Raptor Discussion Continues

A local Black-capped Chickadee, Puecile atricapilla, sustained by sunflower seeds from the feeder, hits the bath.

Betty Jo of Camarillo, a long time blog contributor, sent along her opinion about bird feeders and the Raptors that sometimes frequent them to catch lunch.

Hi Donna,

I think your hypothesis is probably correct regarding bird feeders.

For years I subscribed to the theory that birds didn't need it and indeed it was not the correct thing to do. Then a friend brought over a bag of wild bird seed and--well--that led to about an expensive addiction! Jay peanuts, gathering acorns from the city sidewalks for the jays, black oil for the finches and niger in socks for the Goldfinches--and of course the hummingbird feeders. Luckily, I do not have to contend with squirrels as some of my bird feeding friends do.

This is now my thought on feeding birds--we have virtually destroyed their world (where I live, anyway) so I plan to help the hardy survivors in any way I can. And yes I do have the occasional Sharpie and Coopers come over for lunch--far better in my opinion to be eaten by a natural predator than to be killed by an outside cat--who doesn't even eat you--or to be smacked by a window glass which you think is air--or have your nest destroyed by an out of season tree trimmer.

Betty Jo in Camarillo

Crow Migrants, John Blakeman Responds, and NYC Pigeons

One of the sentinels for a flock of 23 American Crows that arrived three days ago and have stayed on for food, rest, and recreation.


It's rainy and cold today. Therefore the park was deserted when it came to humans so the Crows took up day long residence on the far side away from any houses. If there were any gulls who thought about a worm snack, they had to go forage someplace else.

Originally the Crow with her head down was standing alone with cocked head watching something in the grass. The Crow on the right did a medium rapid Crow skip, skip--skip, skip to her side and looked at whatever it was she was looking at, looked at her, and then passed on. Only to be replaced in position by the third Crow. I noticed no one tried to take the tidbit away from her though very interested in it.

They took turns perching and foraging but eventually most returned to the trees and chatted.

And now to John's Blakeman's response to my thought during the conversation on Cooper's hawks moving to the city and predating feeders, that because of current farm and home vegetation practices, if there were no feeders we'd have very few winter birds and and even fewer raptors.

Donna,

Yes, modern agricultural practices have created giant biological deserts, absent hedgerows, weedy corners, or other small patches of wildlife habitat.

Here in Ohio (and I'm sure in Wisconsin, too), farmers no longer have to spend hours on their tractors slowly cultivating rows of corn or soybeans with mechanical weeders. Round-up Ready crops have allowed farmers to plant once in May, spray once in June or July, and then harvest in October. The Round-up and other modern herbicides have simply eliminated weed tilling, so in the summer farmers have hundreds of unused hours. On many farms, especially here in Ohio, there are no longer any animals. The entire operation is row-crops.

So, farmers now have rather large John Deere riding lawn mowers and instead of just mowing the lawn around the farm house, they now feel compelled to spend hours mowing up and down the roadsides. Where roadsides once were mowed infrequently by the highway department, today, they look like long stretches of a golf course fairway. For many farmers, modern life is threatened by "weeds," any unplanted vegetation taller then 4 inches, Round-up and other herbicides not withstanding.

And no mice, voles, shrews, butterflies, dragonflies, or other wild creature can live in these biological deserts. Nothing other than corn or soybeans lives out in the fields, and now, nothing lives in the ditches and on the roadsides. Biological deserts, by any definition.

Don't worry about Pale Male and his New York cohorts lacking for pigeons. I just read that a "pigeon czar" is being selected, a person who will have the authority to enforce no-feeding laws with $!000 fines or so. There will be sufficient pigeons in Central Park, no matter what. And it appears the NYC red-tails could persist almost exclusively on rats, were that required.

--John Blakeman

Grass all the way to the horizon and not a seed to be had except that found in the feeder.

John,

As to worrying about Pale Male and company getting enough to eat without a hefty pigeon population, I do worry. According to my count, the Red-tails diet in Central Park consists of 83% pigeon. (The Divine Hawks up at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine tend to a somewhat higher ratio of rat.) Yes, the hawks could hunt more rats but that makes us all cringe because the chance of their being poisoned by rat bait rises greatly.

During breeding season when pigeon meals usually arrive at the nest at a steady rate during the day, the only rats that tend to be available before dusk are the sick or poisoned ones.

Beyond the Red-tails, I worry about the pigeons themselves. They are very smart, city savvy, friendly, and special birds. Without them I'd never see a bird from my apartment window, not one. There are absolutely no green spaces near where I live. Pigeons don't need them.

Besides targeting an entire species to be eradicated by starvation as they are human dependent is never acceptable. And if the pigeons aren't fed, neither will be the migrant native birds that share in those feedings.

Twenty years ago, every village and farm in Wisconsin had a small flock of pigeons. Between poisoning them in the towns, and the disappearance of food in the country, I've seen six pigeons in the entire time I've been here. I'll bet if the pigeons were still around the Red-tail that stopped in the other day wouldn't have been wasting his time scoping out the little native birds at the feeder. I do worry about there being enough Pigeons in Central Park.

What can I say? I don't see pigeons as any problem whatsoever though the huge flocks of Starlings out here do have me very worried. They're the only birds I tend to see in the countryside besides Raptors.

Speaking of pigeons, Master-Link-Man Bill Walters sent in an article from The New York Times today speaking on just this matter.


NEW YORK REGION November 17, 2007

Pigeon-Rights Groups Rush to Defend Their Feathered Friends

By PETER DUFFY

About a dozen of New York’s leading pigeon advocates met recently to plan a response to a proposal that would make feeding pigeons illegal.

WHIRL!

By the way, The Cooper's Hawk was back today. There was only one feeding session at my feeder by the flock and then the birds disappeared. I assume to one of the neighbor's feeders. A few hours later, when hearing Crows call, I looked out. There was the Coop flapping zigzags through the air and trees in the yard in hot pursuit of, I think, a House Sparrow. They then disappeared over a roof and though I tried I didn't spot them again.

Donegal Browne