It’s spread by avian parasite trichomoniasis.
It causes an infection in the throats of birds, making them unable to swallow.
Dave Currie, president of the Nova Scotia Bird Society, said the disease is severe and is affecting all species of birds and the group is asking folks not to put their bird feeders out just yet, but wait until cooler weather.
“This parasite is one that tends to thrive in warmer weather and we’re still getting quite warm weather in September. We hope that as the temperature decreases with colder weather in October that people can think again about putting their feeders out again.”
Currie says it’s difficult to tell if the disease is curbing any because birds are so mobile.
But he says there’s no doubt that people have helped save the lives of many birds.
“You can pretty much assume, that with, I’m sure, thousands of feeders taken in due to media attention earlier in the summer, that there was some mitigation keeping a lid on the spread of the parasite this year.”
Currie says the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative has a web site and any sick birds can be reported to them.
He says the Cooperative has reported getting 105 reports of dead birds spanning Quebec to Newfoundland and Labrador but Currie believes that number is low and says the actual number of deaths is likely considerably higher.
“They would have only received reports that were sent directly to them.”
Currie says people who haven’t yet, need to remove their bird feeders and baths, clean them with a diluted bleach solution and put them away.
Here is a link to the CWHC: