Bird Watching: Redpolls, 1 by broots

broots wrote:
Excellent photos burn. You sure have your share of redpolls this year don't you? I do think your one little puffed up redpoll is sick. Here are a couple of photos of my sick redpolls in April 2002. Our Ministry of Natural Resources had put out a news release telling people to be careful handling birds & feeders as there was confirmation of salmonellosis in birds. It was reported to be in common redpolls, American goldfinches, pine grosbeaks, house sparrows and pine siskens. It stressed the importance of disinfecting birdfeeders & keeping your dogs & cats away from the birds as they could become sick from eating the dead birds. We were asked to report the sick or dead birds to our local MNR.

My redpolls didn't become sick until the end of March or early April & they would be trying to balance themselves with their wings & eventually just fall over dead. I even picked up a few dead birds in the spruce trees. I must have had about a dozen dead redpolls to dispose of that year. You could even walk right up to them as they sat in the grass. Since 2002 my number of redpolls has reduced drastically but that is possibly due to weather patterns I guess. I used to have over 100 but am now down to about 4. I used to go through 6 - 50lb bags of nyjer seed every winter. I wish you luck & hope you don't lose too many. Maybe it isn't salmonellosis & you just have a sick little redpoll.