I suspect that this cankerous finch has good old Fowl Pox (Avian Pox) -
you would have to get the veterinary/academic types to rattle off the
medical/scientific name of the disease.

This disease causes lesions and tumors on the head and feet of the
affected bird. I have seen it most common in house finches and raptors,
and occasionally in juncos, song sparrows, and golden-crowned sparrows.

A woman at one of the UC colleges is doing research attempting to
correlate incidence of fowl pox in house finches with male plumages -
i.e. whether the "gold-plumaged" males have a higher incidence of pox
than do the red-plumaged males. I can't recall her name or institution
off-hand, but can post it for tweeters after the weekend, if folks want
more info on her project.

The disease can be fatal to the bird. I have taken diseased Red-tails to
the local vets, but by the time a person can catch a sick hawk, its
chances of recovery are low anyway. Pox is not always fatal, though. I
have banded several house finches that had tumors on the legs or head
area and have recaptured them after several weeks or months. One female
finch had lost vision in an eye to a pox tumor during the winter, yet was
in breeding condition the following Spring (had a well-developed brood
patch, anyway).

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, WA
anderjda at dfw.wa.gov

On Fri, 24 Mar 1995, Susan Victoria Otton wrote:

> I have an unusual visitor to my backyard feeder: a humpty-back female house
> finch.
>
> I saw her first on Feb 13th, when I looked out at the feeder and saw what
> looked like a bird (with its back to me) with a single downy feather
> sticking straight up out of its head. Eventually, a profile view revealed
> that what I initially took for her head, was in fact a "head-sized" bump
> between her shoulder blades -

> Seems I have fretted needlessly over her
> Her bump has flattened somewhat, and is now roughly about half the
> "height" of her head, but the same diameter.
>
> Does anyone out there know if an abscess would have drained by now? Could
> it be a tumor? Are tumors very commonly seen now in birds?

> -----------------------------
> Victoria Otton
> email: sotton at sfu.ca
> phone: (604) 937-5379
>
>