Warning - this is pretty graphic.

I saw what must have been one of the saddest things I've ever seen, at my
feeder over the weekend. A House Finch, apparently with this same disease,
had no beak at all. There was just an opening with a tongue poking out. It
was actually managing to eat some of the tiniest, broken seeds with no
shells. I did take the feeder down immediately, so haven't seen it since.
The feathers were in bad shape, since it couldn't preen. I can't imagine it
lasted very long.

I haven't seen many of these birds, but the few I have were very disturbing.

----- Original Message -----
From: <SHYPOKEGM at aol.com>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2001 10:40 AM
Subject: Fwd: House Finch Disease Survey


> I recieved this immediate reply and thought it worth sharing.
> Germaine
> Carnation, WA
> shypokegm at aol
>