I spent more time working on an article about birds this week than I did actually birding, so I had to get my birding fix by looking out the window. Cloudy skies and dirty windows aren’t the best conditions for viewing, but it is better than nothing.
Anna’s Hummingbird
Anna’s Hummingbird
The Western Scrub-Jays have been hitting the feeder hard, filling their crops with seeds and flying off to hide them somewhere.
House Finch
Red-breasted Nuthatch
American Goldfinch
I have been seeing dead and dying goldfinches and a couple of nuthatches all fall and winter. Anybody else? I am fairly new to bird feeding. Am I doing something wrong? Also, who can I get in touch with when I have bird questions?
If you see more than one sick bird, take your feeders down for a few days and give them a good cleaning. Birds can become sick from a dirty feeder and/or from contact with other birds. Taking the feeders down for a while will allow the birds to disperse, thus avoiding close contact. If your feeder is very dirty, or is moldy at all, scrub it with a ten percent bleach solution and allow it to dry thoroughly. Also don’t allow debris to accumulate under your feeder, as wet seed and shells can encourage harmful mold to grow.
We had problems with sick Pine Siskins a couple of years ago that we think were related to dirty feeders. We had some flat tray feeders that were accumulating at lot of bird feces and and after we pulled them all down, the situation seemed to get better.