Inland Birders and Tweeters,

The behavior described could have resulted from Robins eating
fermented berries. At first blush, that seems to me to be the most
likely cause.

If I read the message correctly, only one Robin was found dead. However,
if there were a number of dead Robins in the area, this would definitely
warrant notifying the authorities. I would contact the nearest office of
either WDFW or the US Fish & Wildlife Service. I am sure that either of
these agencies would be interested in a significant kill of birds, and
would be able to send dead birds to a lab where the cause of death
could be determined. If chemical poisoning seemed likely, I am sure that
there is a lab somewhere in WA where tests for chemical residues could
be carried out.

In British Columbia, there is a M.O.U. between the Canadian Wildlife
Service, BC Wildlife Branch, and BC Ministry of Agriculture for
investigating mass kills of birds. The provincial Animal Health
Lab (Veterinary Lab) in Abbotsford is involved in determining cause
of death of birds. Past bird kills have been found to be caused by
diseases (e.g. aspergillosis or salmonellosis), pesticides, vehicle
collisions
(e.g. with siskins and grosbeaks gathering on highways to eat road salt),
and in one case, apparently, birds drinking seawater (Canada Geese).

I would hope that a similar arrangement exists in Washington.
Perhaps someone on the group who works for a wildlife agency
could comment?

In any case, I think it is premature to contact a wildlife agency if only
one dead bird has been found. If there are 10 or 20 dead birds or
more, that's a different matter.


Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net



----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill and Nancy LaFramboise" <billnanl at verizon.net>
To: "'Tweeters'" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>; <inland-nw-birders at uidaho.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 6:03 AM
Subject: [inland-NW-birders]FW: robin behavior/poisoning question


A student at Eastern in Cheney encountered this flock of affected robins -
any thoughts? Does de-icer poison birds? I considered fermented berries
and "drunken" behavior but would fermented berries kill?

Nancy

Bill and Nancy LaFramboise
Richland WA

-----Original Message-----

As I was leaving the other day, I noticed that all the robins nearby were
acting very strangely. They were shaking their heads much like a human
shakes their head to get water out of their ears and they were very
off-balanced. I thought at first they had a broken wing or leg, but it would
be odd that all of them suffered the same injury. As I watched more closely,
I realized they couldn't walk or fly straight or even regain some sort of
balance. It was very sad to see. I tried to at least get them out of the
road by following them as they wobbled until they were in somebody's lawn.
When they tried to fly, they couldn't get higher than me before they flipped
over or crashed into the ground.

Also, there were a few robins who sat in the tree above me looking very
lethargic. I got so close to one of them that I could have touched him. I
was less than three inches away. And he never moved, never got scared, never
flew or anything. I thought this was all very weird. Then I found a dead
robin nearby. He wasn't squished or bleeding and there was no evidence of a
bullet hole or him being hit by a car. He looked perfectly intact. I
suspected that the robins were being poisoned somehow but as far as I know,
no one around there uses pesticides. But it was weird that all of them were
acting that way, plus I had found a dead one not too far away.

The curious thing was that there was heaps of de-icer all over the road.
We've had pretty bad weather lately, and ice is everywhere. It makes sense
that the landlord would want to make the roads outside his apartments less
slippery. The de-icer is in pellet form and is seriously everywhere. It's
clear that he used too much, as most of the ice is gone and there's still
huge piles of it on the road. (Ironically, I slip on that more than the ice
itself) I was wondering if maybe this was causing the poisoning? Or do you
think the robins were poisoned at all? I did look for spots of antifreeze
around the cars, but I found nothing.

I don't know the ingredients. I'm considering calling the landlord just to
find out. He's very passionate about animals and I know he'd feel horrible
if his de-icer was causing robins to drop dead.

If you have an idea of what's going on, I'd love to know. I'd really like to
help the robins out. If you think Tweeters would have more information or
may have an idea also, go ahead and post an inquiry to them. I've told you
everything I know. This just happened this morning, but I wanted to get
information as soon as possible. I happened to run into somebody while I was
studying the dead robin, and he said that he had noticed the same thing -
that all the robins in that area were acting really funny. The really
interesting thing is that when I crossed the road to the parking lot of my
dorms, all the robins were normal. And there was no de-icer on the ground.

Thanks so much!!!

*Kim*