Tweets,
Prior to the CBC, I was notified by a friend in Kingston that at a feeder
near kingston that perhaps as many as a dozen siskins had dropped dead
with symptoms very similar those those described. The person did clean her
feeders but I still heard of a few deaths. A few days before the CBC
(12/19) the flock that had been estimated at 350-400 in her yard mostly
left and only 25-50 were remaining so I cannot say whether the mortalities
stopped or just shifted to another feeder. This was before the cold snap
hit. I would be very curious as to speculations of disease that might be
infecting these finches.
One obvious answer of she did not clean her feeder throughly, I do not
think applies here as I asked what process she went through and it was
sufficient enough to kill the feeder pathogens I'm aware of. And obviously
the cold was not a factor as this was early December before the cold hit.
Thank you for any suggestions,

Scott Downes
sdownes at u.washington.edu
Seattle WA

"Birds don't read bird books. (That's why they are seen doing things they
are not supposed to do)." -Mary Wood