Sick & dying songbirds in 53 Indiana counties. DNR says Remove All Birdfeeders Statewide

a reply to: Wide-Eyes
Not covid exactly but things like salmonella and others that have been around. I am no bird expert though but it seems to be a logic conclusion.

I wonder if it could be linked to this

First X-Class Solar flare since 2017

The sun has been quite active just lately and little birds especially are sensitive to solar storms.

Just throwing it out there

originally posted by: SeektoUnderstand
a reply to: BrokenCircles

I’ve been studying birds and observing them in Michigan for about 20 years.... this is alarming, but I haven’t noticed anything in the lower peninsula or in the U.P. And I just got back from a week vacation up there....

4 of the 5 northern IN Counties that border MI are included in the list of 53 counties.

But what exactly does it take to make the list....

This article is from 10 days ago (posted June 23, 2021), but it's an interesting theory....


A mysterious illness that kills songbirds has now hit Indiana. Could cicadas be to blame?

As of now, no one knows the answer. But one possible suspect is being investigated: Brood X cicadas.

Brian Evans, an ornithologist with the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center in Washington D.C., told NPR the mystery illness first flared up around the time cicadas started climbing from the dirt. Some areas reporting sick birds also have high cicada populations.

He wondered if the birds were getting sick after scarfing cicadas that had been sprayed with insecticide. Or maybe, he said, a fungus found in the little red-eyed bugs was to blame.

Called Massospora cicadina, the psychedelic-infused fungus eats at cicadas’ insides until their abdomens crack, fall off, and get replaced with a mass of white spores.

It can plague both males and females, but the former gets the brunt of it. Massospora causes them to behave like a female and male simultaneously, helping them attract as many mates as they can. Since half their bodies are gone, they can’t reproduce – but they can spread the fungus to more partners.

Last month, however, a cicada expert told the Courier & Press that birds and other animals usually avoid eating fungus-riddled cicadas.

A tie to the periodical insects would actually be good news, Evans said. The illness would disappear as soon as the cicadas did – which should be soon – and likely wouldn’t resurface for another 17 years.

As of now, though, that’s just a hypothesis. Another wildlife expert told NPR he fielded reports of stricken birds as early as April 11 – well before the cicadas hit the scene.

“There's a lot of different ideas … circulating regarding what might be causing this event,” Evans said.

Probably something in the birdfood they are selling. There were problems with deformed beaks on some birds in Alaska from birdfood. The FDA increased chemicals used on food from five thousand to fifty thousand approved chemicals in the last ten years without doing much testing on their own. I would suspect this approval also covers animal foods since the chemicals are approved throughout all aspects of food making including some in animal foods.

Improperly used science is going to kill everything if we do not watch it, why such a big increase in these chemicals with no government testing required, just test against known factors that cause poisoning or known problems and then have an insurance policy for seven years. It takes years for the cause of symptoms to be identified and then it takes years before the chemicals are proven the caused and banned for use.

originally posted by: BrokenCircles
In order to slow down the spread of this illness, the Department of Natural Resources has recommended the removal of all birdfeeders Statewide.
In the meantime, officials are asking the public to take down their bird feeders and stop spreading feed.

Is it for two weeks just to "flatten the curve?" Two weeks worked so well for humans.

Leave the poor birds alone. I'm leaving my bird feeders up - I've got so many dependents.

originally posted by: Athetos
Hmm interesting all the test came back negative come common avian diseases, maybe the removal of bird feeders isn’t so much social distancing as it is removing a possibly compromised batch of bird feed thats either poisoning or spreading disease.

I find this interesting as all but my two largest pigeons died (flock of about 60) last spring and I am inclined to think it was feed as they don't ever fly free. I thought I might have tracked disease in on my shoes but I sent two of the dead to the government agricultural lab and they came back with nothing amiss except mild kidney damage. No real solution.

a reply to: BrokenCircles

I don't know about PA, but I've got more birds around here in CO than I've ever seen! Just tonight I was remarking to my wife about how many songbirds we have happily singing away in our trees and around the house. The little piglets are eating me out of house and home on birdseed. We must have about 50 house finches, three producing nests on the front porch alone. We've got flickers, and doves, cardinals, a couple species I haven't identified yet, but very colorful, and numerous others.

I've never gone through birdseed like I'm going through it this year. They're probably eating over a pound per day or more of it.

I am NOT taking my birdfeeders down!

Never again will I listen to authorities about some faux contagious disease! Never again!

I have a suspicion that the sugar water in humming bird feeders turns into "jail hooch" after a time.

a reply to: BrokenCircles

I don’t know why people use bird feeders year round, all they do is attract rats and mice, and it’s not as if birds aren’t wild creatures that can fend for themselves.

Chinese virus laced bird seed? A new one that infects birds then people? Send the seed to certain countries and watch the new pandemic get blamed on wild flocks of birds outside of China. A plan that the ChiComs would likely have in their biological war play book IMO.

a reply to: Homefree

Yes, it sours in the heat which is the beginning of fermentation.

originally posted by: Wide-Eyes
Wtf are these regulators thinking?

Bird flus burn themselves out pretty quickly.

These people are insane.

Well, yeah - I mean, these are the same group that destroyed our economies and social cultures for a virus with a CFR that is about the same as a bad flu.

originally posted by: tanstaafl

originally posted by: Wide-Eyes
Wtf are these regulators thinking?

Bird flus burn themselves out pretty quickly.

These people are insane.

Well, yeah - I mean, these are the same group that destroyed our economies and social cultures for a virus with a CFR that is about the same as a bad flu.

Imagine destroying my livelihood and many others' for the sake of a corona virus...

originally posted by: ThatDamnDuckAgain
a reply to: Wide-Eyes
Not covid exactly but things like salmonella and others that have been around. I am no bird expert though but it seems to be a logic conclusion.

Salmonella has been around since man first started harvesting eggs.

It was commonly referred to as food poisoning.

We don't live in the dark ages now bro....

Just yesterday in the local news, was an article about songbirds all over the lehigh valley (Eastern PA.) that are getting sick and dieing. Bird feeders and bird baths are to be taken down, and the test results sound exactly like the article in the OP.

SnrRog

a reply to: BrokenCircles

Jays and Robins aren't common feeder birds at all unless you're catering to them because they aren't seed eaters. I have seen starlings come to suet plenty, and cardinals will come to regular bird seed. I did see a cowbird on my feeder once.

My parents manage to feed the Jays with cat kibble they intend for their barn cats though.

So I have to wonder what it is that these birds are all coming into contact with in common because that's far more likely to be the cause than just regular old bird feeders which would be more likely to get cardinals, sparrows, finches, chickadees, etc. - all of them likely to eat seed.

originally posted by: Wide-Eyes
Imagine destroying my livelihood and many others' for the sake of a corona virus...

No imagination required, only eyes and/or at least half a functional brain cell.

a reply to: BrokenCircles

I havent seen any dead or dying birds around my parts of Indiana. I walk on my route 10 miles a day. Must be in other counties right now.

a reply to: Crumbles

I haven't seen any either, but I also haven't been looking and haven't really been going out that much either.

This is purely speculation, but they may require only a small number of reports, in order for a county to be added to their list.


ETA: Here's a map of the counties:
infogram.com...