We have been seeing a sickly greenfinch over the past couple of days.

It is a sorry sight, it can hardly fly and seems to be choking when it is trying to eat.

Our neighbour said that he has heard that a number of garden species have currently got a disease and are dying.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/helpingbi ... inches.asp

I had read about this on the BTO website I am a member of the BTO Garden bird watch, I believe most of the finches can be affected, they are asking us to make sure our feeders are kept clean and not to let the water in bird bath stand for to long ,in fact they implied stop filling it up.
Will be sending them my counts will tell you if they have an update.
We have had either a sparrowhawk or a peregrine in the garden there are feathers all over one area

Around 5.15 this afternoon, I called my husband to come quick as there was a pheasant sitting on the front fence.

It is still there and it is now 6.48. I fear there is probably something wrong with that too.

When Brian went down to shut the front gates a few minutes ago, he walked right up to it and it never moved.

Oh dear, I do hope all is well.

Sounds serious Monika

I think it is, deja ..... I've just switched on the outside light and it's still there.

Poor things! If this illness takes hold, people will be shouting "Bird flu" willy nilly!

The pheasant was still there when we went to bed last night.

It had gone this morning when we awoke, but I suspect it is probably dead or dying somewhere.

This illness in birds they say was started by pigeons and I always remember David Attenborough saying that pigeons are responsible for causing more diseases than rats and not just to other birds.

I generally shoo pigeons off my garden as I can't stand their huge messy droppings - I find them disgusting.

I had a grey parrot for nearly 30yrs and it died from Psittacosis, the vet reckoned it caught it from the pigeons in the garden, he loved going into the garden, in his cage, but with all the pigeons flying around he could have caught it from them,
so now my parrot today called Widget, never goes into the garden, some may say 'shame' but he has not know any different, and when it is hot he goes in his cage and I open the patio doors, but he is not to near them.

Flying S**thouses, my dad used to call pigeons

The disease in the finches is called trichomoniasis there is information on the bto web site
www.bto.org

That's all quite dreadful.....the poor things... any updates??

Miriam

We have been in this bungalow for ten years now and today is a record low.

We have always had huge numbers of birds, both back and front - predominantly, greenfinches, chaffinches, goldfinches and blackbirds .... dozens of them.

Today, we have had one bird, a hedgesparrow, and I can't tell you how distressing this is.

I think it is going to take a very long time to get the numbers up to what they were previously.

SODDING PIGEONS

A fairly recent picture

Up to now we don't seem to have a problem in other words we haven't seen any sick birds.

I have had some Gold Finches this year, I bought some Niger seed for a feeder and they loved it, but for the last few weeks I have not seen them, might be this disease you are on about.

We counted 18 goldfinch on the feeders and the ground underneath a few weeks ago. Some of them were young ones yet to get their red faces.

Now they are gone.

We have seen the most pathetic sights with the greenfinches .... they seem to be choking and it is obvious that they cannot eat.

Our immediate neighbours are also bird lovers and they are distressed about it too.

I do hope, twinsmum, that your area is free from this and stays that way.