>This morning when filling my feeders I found two dead pine siskins
>in the tray portion of my tube feeder. The tray had been washed on
>Sunday and put back in the basket that hangs under the feeder. The
>feeder has hulled sunflower chips in it. I have had a flock of
>about 60-70 siskins for about a month now both on the feeders (I
>have four) and on the ground under the feeders. I had just cleaned
>the feeder tray on Sunday and try to clean all the feeders pretty
>frequently.
>
>Questions:
>
>Have there been any other reports of dead birds around feeders this
>year?
>
>All the apartment complex's cats hang around these feeders -- this
>one is up pretty high -- but could a cat jumping up there scare the
>birds to death?
>
>Any recommendations, advice, ideas? I'd appreciate it.
>
>Thanks
>
>Karen Juenemann
>ZymoGenetics (SMTPGATE-ZGI)
>442-6810 or 776-5521

Karen, two winters ago--you may know this--siskins were dying like flies
throughout this region from salmonella. I have a good flock of siskins this
winter, and this weekend I found two of them somewhat moribund. I wasn't
sure whether they had flown into a window (I heard one such sound on
Sunday) or were sick. One died, the other I haven't seen again.

There is not much doubt that aggregating the birds at feeders makes the
disease easier to contract, probably even if you keep your feeders
relatively clean. Siskins don't get that close to each other when they're
just feeding on alder cones up in trees. It would probably be wise for
people to freeze siskins they find dead at their feeders (that are neither
cat nor window kills) and call the Department of Fisheries & Wildlife,
which I believe last year was involved in sending the birds away to be
necropsied.

If we begin to hear of a lot of dead siskins at feeders, I suspect the only
way we can try to prevent this highly contagious disease would be to stop
feeding siskins entirely, which might even mean not feeding any birds.
Perhaps a week without feeding might send your particular siskins on their
way, but then again there are bird feeders in every neighborhood who
probably won't get this word. A lot of siskins feed on the ground under
feeders, and it's difficult to sterilize such a place.

What you describe is exactly what people were finding two winters ago. I
can't imagine a cat would scare even one bird, much less two birds, to
death while they remained immobile. Remember, birds live with predators as
a fact of life every day of their lives; they're not as fearful of being
eaten as we are.

E-mail would be a good way to keep track of this. Does anyone have an
e-mail address for the Dept. of F&W or any local rehabilitators?


Dennis Paulson phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound email: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416