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Re: Ticks and birds



>I have feeders and water in my yard for the birds and enjoy watching and
>trying to identify birds.  Feb. 29th. I found a purple finch dead in the
>yard.  It had large, swollen ticks on it's head and face and other parts of
>its body.  Today I noted a junco sitting on a feeder not moving and went to
>check it.  Before it flew I saw a large swollen tick on the side of it's face
>near the beak.  Is this something that ordinarially happens?  I've never seen
>anything like it.  Should I clean out my feeders and stop feeding them for
>awhile?  Please advise.  Jessie Pearson ,  Wilkes county, N.C.  Boomer
>community.
>RufusMtn@aol.com

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JESSIE . . .

It's possible that your feeder may contribute to tick transmission, 
but probably not significantly. Ticks on birds eventually fall off 
and drop to the earth, where they lay their eggs that hatch out into 
immature ticks that eventually get back primarily onto ground-feeding 
birds--sometimes after spending part of the life cycle on small 
mammals. That said, ticks can get onto birds as larvae, nymphs, or 
adults, but it seems less likely that a tick already on one bird 
would jump to another bird at the feeder.

In my experience as a bander, mild winters seem to lead to greater 
infestations of ticks. It's part of the natural scheme and nothing to 
be alarmed about.

In the past I have caught birds with a dozen or more ticks on their 
heads, and many of the birds were recaptured later will no ill 
effects. (I used to remove ticks from birds when I banded them, but 
quit doing it because I thought it did more harm than good.) Ticks 
can have a detrimental effect on birds, however, including causing 
temporary or permanent blindness and, in extreme cases, even death 
when several ticks divert blood from the bird's brain.

Some of my experiences with bird and ticks are described on the 
Hilton Pond Center's website at http://www.hiltonpond.org. I've just 
posted two tick articles with color photos under the "Publications" 
subsection; one is under Vol. 3 of "The Piedmont Naturalist," the 
other is under "General Articles."

BTW, ticks or no ticks, it's a good idea to clean all your seed 
feeders monthly, sterilizing them with a light concentration of 
household bleach.


Best wishes,

BILL

**********

BILL HILTON JR., "The Piedmont Naturalist"
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
1432 DeVinney Road
York, South Carolina 29745
USA

e-mail: <hilton@hiltonpond.org>

Voice: (803) 684-5852

eFax: (503) 218-0845



Hilton Pond Website:  <http://www.hiltonpond.org>

Operation RubyThroat Website:  <http://www.rubythroat.org>


"Never trust a person too lazy to get up for sunrise or too busy to 
watch the sunset."

						BHjr.

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