Friday, June 13, 2008
Special guests!
A pair of house finches built their nest just inside the summer parrot enclosure. I was admiring the workmanship of the nest when up popped all these heads! After I fed the parrots, I watched from a distance as the parents flew in and out (they found a small hole in the structure) to feed the babies.
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5 comments:
Those babies are so cute, I always enjoy the house finches that stop by my feeder, they are probably one of my top 10 favorite feeders birds that I have stop by my house.
Lately though I have been very upset and sad. My house finches have been afflicted with the eye disease, conjuctivitis (sp?).
I have seen many that are almost blind in both eyes. It is just so sad, i want to help them so much but I dont know what to do.
Do you have any advice on this horrible disease? Is there anything I can put in the food to help treat them? Can other birds catch this disease? Can I put food on the ground?
I took down my tube feeders and have been bleaching them, but all the birds keep stopping by the hooks to look for the feeders. I feel so bad for them.
Please help, thank you!!
Oh that is terrible! I don't know much about this beyond cleaning the feeders and baths to prevent other birds from getting it.
Maybe someone else here will post with suggestions. I'd also recommend contacting your local Audubon society. They have helped me with local feeder bird questions.
I'm so sorry you are going through it! I know it is heartbreaking.
did you know that those finches are in jepardy of being chewed up by the parrots? I had a Cuckatoo who use to like to chew up canaries like they were some kind of a play thing. Once i had the cuckatoo on my shoulder and a canary sat on my other shoulder ; the cuckatoo reached behind me and grabbed the canary by the throat, thinking it was something to play with. Screan the birds apart I say.
The parrots are in separate cages within the enclosure, so no one is in danger.
I don't doubt they would damage the nest/chicks if given the chance.
The disease that you're seeing in your house finches is one called Mycoplasmal Conjunctivitis, and unfortunately, it's quite common in House and Goldfinches. As sad as it is, there is still no known cause to this. If you wanted to help, go to this website. It's a citizen science program that the Cornell lab does to monitor the spread of Mycoplasmal Conjuntivitis .
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/hofi/abtdisease.html
The parrots are less than interested in the House finches, and have even been out of the cage when both parents were right present.
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