Oh, its really sad...

Aww....poor little creature. Is this disease fatal then? I've not heard of it to my knowledge...it must be highly contagious if the RSPB recommends removing bird feeders etc.

Yes to both questions J, spreads rapidly and is fatal as it affects their throat, they cannot swallow and literally starve to death. The symptons are lethargy, picking at seed, trying to drink a lot, regurgitation of food (which is the spreading of disease bit) disastrous if they do it on or in a feeder or bird bath. They lose colour and "fluff up" and can be seen to dribble.

Oh heartbreaking Tetrarch, i'm so sorry :-(((
There is detailed information on various garden sites aswell as the RSPB one and it is just awful.
Sorry again :-(

Oh bless him, breaks him heart to see animals in distress.
So does this mean you have to stop feeding the birds altogether? For how long? It's a shame they all have to suffer.
Well sanitised feeders and fresh food not be ok?

... maybe I should just go and look at the rspb site......

Problem when you feed on a big scale like we do it only takes one bird to infect several feeders..refresh everything and along comes a sick bird..refresh the water and along comes a sick bird..water not so much a problem for us, but we have just thrown away a whole carrier bag of bird seed and fat balls..we just cant afford to do that on a daily basis..

Tetrarch, I am sure if you were to put these pics on
'I SPY A BIRD' Bb & Jane, would be able to assist you on your questions...it is a great site, & will give all the info: about our Birds...
'Your pics & Blog would be appreciated, by all our
Birdlovers as well as myself...

Surely you shouldn't need to throw out your stock of feed.
Maybe just try filling your feeders little and often (try and not contaminate your stock), cleaning in between, just really hot water should be ok.
It would be such a shame for all your visitors to suffer by not getting anything to eat.

Have done that Fperson see under Dodo.
Donna, we have thrown what we think the sick bird used. Will leave a couple days before we put out some more. By that time the poor mite will probly be dead anyway. Havent seen anymore that look remotely sick. We will put out fat balls because our sparrows are pretty territorial over them. Only bigger birds and the occasional tit have the odd look in!

Think I read about that infectious disease in my bird magazine, it is sad but at least now being aware of it will make us more vigilant with our feeders and baths which hopefully will help .......

that is so sad, poor little thing, I have not heard of this bird disease before, we get loads of greenfinches in our crab apple tree, I will look carefully at them in the future. I am glad you put this on Tet.

Oh dear this does not sound good...will have to keep a look out, will have a look at I Spy and the RSPB site.

poor little thing, i thought it was a baby one when i first saw it but i realise that must be part of the disease ~ the fluffing up bit.

Since I heard about this dreadful disease last year I only have one nut feeder, I throw everything else on the ground. We used to have lots of finches, none now.

im not sure we have had finches here at all [been here 6 years] so im assuming they dont like it here rather than that they have the disease??

i have read bt this it allso afecting long tail tits as well horrid isent it , poor thing . ... (

oh no! they are lovely little things ~ such great fun watching them flitter through the trees ~ always in a group they sound like tiny bells

love the long tail tits but not seen them much this year so i think its got them 2

not all of them ~ saw several happily flying round 4 days ago

o gud ... but not here :o((((

what a shame..i have not heard of this disease..:o((

how very sad Tetra and having to just look on and not be able to help the poor thing to ;o(((

By the time they are noticeably ill Sanbaz its too late anyway and there is very little that can be done for wild birds. I just prayed he would go quickly as its very distressing to see and terribly distressing and painful for the bird.

poor thing, a very nasty disease :-((

nature can be cruel cant it ;o(

Oh dear, he certainly doesn`t look at all well, I do hope he didn`t suffer. I have wondered at the shortage of goldfinches in the area, usually I would have seen lots by now but the feeders have been really quiet, I hope that awful disease isn`t the reason for it. :o(

We bought a few more feeders and are swapping them around so we can clean some and still feed..that and cleaning their baths regularly is all we can do..that and hope..

Oh dear poor little thing, I've never heard of this disease either Tetrarch so thanks for that, I'll certainly be keeping an eye open now as we have quite a lot of greenfinches in the garden at the moment.

I'm trying to catch up on blogs Tet so sorry so late. This is a new one to me too. A few years ago we had a couple of dunnocks over the year which grew fat as a ball and ate continuously. Eventually they couldn't fly and presumably died. I read that this too was spread by bird feeders etc, but can't remember what it was called. I suppose the population eventually build up some sort of immunity, but it's heartbreaking to see anything suffer isn't it. It's so hard to know the best thing to do about feeding:-(

As long as everything clean and fresh Ba I think we help far more than we might hurt..and especially in the breeding season. All the birds that visit us, even the blue tits look reasonable at the end of breeding season. Im sure its because they can have easy access to food for themselves whilst feeding their young.