At 08:40 AM 5/4/97 -0700, you wrote:
>I found a web page from Cornell that has a picture of a female house finch
>with the same growth that I noticed on my house finch. In checking for more
>information on this subject, I found that Cornell is running a study on
>feeder-seen diseases but not many have been reported on the west coast.
>
>So I'm running kind of a loose study myself and would ask if anyone sees
>this in their local finches, to please let me know and I'll pass it on to
>another person who is compiling data.
>
>The web page address is:
>
> http://www.ornith.cornell.edu/CS/HOFI/main.html
>
>BTW, the disease she has is called Mycoplasma gallisepticum, or MG.
>
>Peggi
>Ben & Peggi Rodgers
>Aptos, CA (near Santa Cruz 122 W, 37 N)
>USA
>woodduck at cruzio.com
>
>
>"A bird does not sing because it has an answer,
> It sings because it has a song"
>
>Yes, we've seen house finches with growths on one of their eyes for a
number of years. The birds also seem to have a need to sit on the feeder
when all the others are gone. Maybe that's because they need more avoid
harassment. We've also seen pine siskins with the salmonela disease. We've
seen dead, swollen pine siskins but never a dead house finch with a growth.
We have a busy feeder, and we try to disinfect it often with a weak clorax
solution.
>
Paul Meyer
Seattle WA