The United States Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) has been working for months with other partner institutions to identify a diagnosis, but they don’t have a clear answer yet. “We're in this curious position where this wave of disease has passed us, and the people can start feeding their birds again, but we never really found out what it was,” Curson says. ![]() Experts agree it’s hard to say why the outbreak receded when it did, and if there was any link to feeders or baths. And it’s the beginning of migration season, so birds are on the move. It’s no longer breeding and nesting season, which means the vulnerable juvenile birds hit hardest by the illness have either matured or died. But there are other variables at play, says Kearns. Reports of the illness have remained low as feeders have gone back up, casting doubt on whether the condition is transmissible between birds. Gillet adds that new reports have shifted from Grackles, Jays, and Robins to mostly finches, which are susceptible to House Finch eye disease-a type of conjunctivitis common this time of year that can look similar to the unidentified illness. And they attribute the few recent reports to other, more standard explanations, like window collisions. ![]() Now, all say accounts of sick and dead birds have reduced to a trickle in their respective states. Pennsylvania was receiving hundreds of reports daily in early July, says Andrew Di Salvo, the state’s Game Commission veterinarian. Laura Kearns, a wildlife biologist for the state’s Division of Wildlife, says she ultimately believes up to 1,000 of the thousands of total reports were about birds suffering from the same set of linked symptoms. Although many were about unrelated bird injuries and deaths, she estimates about 700 of the more than 4,300 total reports were confirmed to be part of the outbreak. “I think within the first week and half, we got 1,000 reports,” says Allisyn Gillet, the ornithologist for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. In Ohio and Indiana, initial reports of sick birds came from wildlife rehabbers in the first week of June but tapered off on a similar timeline.Īt the height of the outbreak, state agencies opened online reporting systems and were overwhelmed by accounts of the illness from members of the public. In Maryland, where Curson is based, he says the first cases emerged at the end of April, fell off through July, and had all but stopped by August. “We were wondering, you know, ‘are people going to have to just stop feeding birds long term?’” says David Curson, director of bird conservation at Audubon Mid-Atlantic. But even as active case numbers fall, the cause of the illness remains a mystery. The change came in response to a steep decrease in the number of reports of sick and dead birds. The last agencies to do so were the Ohio and Indiana Departments of Natural Resources. Agencies in each of the states recommended taking down feeders and draining birdbaths as a precaution against social spread.Īs of September 10, all states have lifted those advisories. Sick birds were officially documented in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and the District of Columbia. Most accounts were of juvenile birds, particularly American Robins, Blue Jays, Common Grackles, and European Starlings-common visitors to backyards and bird feeders. ![]() The mysterious outbreak that caused widespread songbird death and sickness across the eastern and midwestern U.S., statewide feeder removal recommendations, and public concern appears to have subsided.įrom late April through July, reports of disoriented and dead songbirds with swollen eyes proliferated across almost a dozen states.
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