In the general Sequim and Diamond Point area I've banded 4,350 House Finch since
1986. It was only until 2000 that Cornell Lab contacted me to report incidences
of disease to them. However, the last two years I've banded 875 of this species
and only found 2 with conjunctivitis and 1 with fowl pox. But friends about 7
miles from here told me that the incidence at their feeders is more prevalent.
Whether they are reporting different birds or the same bird a number of times is
unknown. One caveat, I do not have feeders. Also, most of my birds were hatching
year young: not adults.

One thing, banding a bird gives one the opportunity of closely exmining them.
And you deal with known birds carrying a band.
with a specific ID number.

Eugene Kridler
Retired USFWS Wildlife Biologist & Administrator
ekridler at olympus.net





variedthrush at attbi.com wrote:

> Robin,
>
> I've been reporting House Finch disease daily to Cornell
> at http://birds.cornell.edu/hofi/ for nearly a year.
> We've had three possible cases in that time at a feeder in
> our yard.
>
> This survey doesn't take much time, is free, helps birds,
> helps us realize how often we need to clean the feeders
> and baths, and may help eastern birding organizations
> realize that we bird out west in this country, too. They
> say they don't have many people from the west reporting.
> --
> Patricia Lott
> Seattle, WA
> VariedThrush at attbi.com
> > How prevalent is house finch eye disease in Western Washington? Over the
> > weekend, I observed an infected female at one of our backyard feeders here
> > in Woodinville and recorded the instance in the PFW survey. It was the
> > first instance that I've noticed in the two years I've lived here. Are
> > there maps or surveys showing prevalence locally?
> >
> > -Robin Nicklas, Woodinville, WA (robinnicklas at attbi.com)
> >