My great aunt has found 4 dead Goldfinches in her garden. No marks on them. The only common denominator seems to be they were all young fledglings. Has anyone else had this happen in their garden? Any ideas would be greatly received. Thank you.

Hi Shazz.

Such as shame! I havn't heard of anything specific affecting gold finches. A suggestion particularly if they had only recently fledged, perhaps they were still being fed by an adult - which has been killed elsewhere - leaving them unable to fend for themselves enough to survive. Or perhaps if they were eating Niger seed, maybe they picked up some disease or bacteria if it was perhaps damp or mouldy?

Sorry - these are the only things I can think of..

Anyone else?

Damon.

This is very strange, last week, we found a Bullfinch (young) dead on our path, we initially thought she had struct something, but she didn't recover, there were NO sign of injury or disease, very strange, as far as were aware both parents are still present as they visit our tree daily.

First ever dead bird we have found in our garden, and strange with no injuries !

sad news! More dead Goldfinches found this week in my aunts garden. One on top of the food bin, one on the lawn and one under the feeder. There was an article on Facebook about Neonicotinoids that researchers think could be linked to death of birds, as well as bees. Could there be a link here? My aunts garden borders a large field used for growing corn and grass, pesticides maybe?Anyone with ideas? I do hope the Goldfinches stop dying.

Hi.

I would suggest a thorough wash down and decontamination of the bird feeders and throwing away of the niger seed just incase this is some kind of fungal or bacterial thing.

Found the following two links with a quick google search - looks like there have been very similar problems in the USA in previous years - another possibility is a type of conjunctivitis.

http://nature.gardenweb.com/discussions/2225354/diseases-in-goldfinches

http://www.birdsandblooms.com/community/topic/4478460/

Good luck!

Damon.

Also Shazz... do send your dead goldfinch records in to this website:

http://www.gardenwildlifehealth.org/


There's lots of information on there too about bird and amphibian diseases and what you can do to prevent them too.


Damon.

Hi Damon
Thanks for info, will inform my aunt and do as you suggest. Haven't checked if more have died but I do know she washes her feeders every week and stores her food in air tight container. Watch this space.
Shazz