![]() However, he says, it appears to be centered in the D.C. area, says the fatal condition has been documented throughout the mid-Atlantic and as far west as Ohio. Initially it was mostly seen in grackles, blue jays and starlings, but has since been seen in house sparrows, northern cardinals, northern flickers, tufted titmice, northern mockingbirds, gray catbirds, Carolina wrens, and American robins.īrian Evans, an ornithologist with the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center who studies the urban bird population in the D.C. The mysterious condition is affecting many different species. ![]() Our role at this point is simply to spare them additional suffering and an inevitable death." "At this point we're so inundated, we are just euthanizing because it's a miserable condition for these birds. Which isn't that surprising in that we don't know what is causing this." "They just went downhill and died no matter what we did. At first, he says, staff would try to treat the birds, but nothing worked. ![]() Monsma says the count is up to 174 dead and ailing birds at City Wildlife. "But at that point it was just one bird and we didn't think of avian epidemics."Įxperts say that to prevent the spread, if it is a transmissible disease, residents should stop using bird feeders and bird baths, should avoid handling dead or sick birds and should keep pets from eating them. Monsma says staff went back through records to find the earliest possible case, and found a bird exhibiting symptoms that came in on April 11.
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