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Re: Strange happenings in Morris Creek



Earlier in the fall, we had a female House Finch that appeared to have 2
large ticks on the crown of her head.  It came to the feeder for about a
week and then we never saw it again.

*************************
Dwayne & Lori Martin
Foothills Bird Club
Claremont, NC
dlmartin@twave.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Donna S. Bailey <dsbailey@conterra.com>
To: carolinabirds@duke.edu <carolinabirds@duke.edu>
Date: Thursday, January 13, 2000 10:05 PM
Subject: Strange happenings in Morris Creek


>
>The first time it happened I attributed to just a fluke that I had happened
>to see it.  That was Tuesday.  The second time I saw it was today and now I
>am downright puzzled.
>
>"It" is ticks on birds.  Tuesday I found a dead Pine Siskin in the yard,
>only to find the bird still bleeding - but not from a traumatic wound.  The
>Pine Siskin had a large tick in its crown that had broken.  Today I found a
>Dark-eyed Junco that had not one but three large ticks - one on its crown,
>one near an ear opening and one just behind an eye.
>
>Terres breifly discusses ticks on birds, pointing out that they tend to be
>found on ground-dwelling birds, tend to concentrate themselves near the
eyes
>and on the head (where the bird can't reach to preen) and apparently don't
>do much harm to the birds as a general rule.  He mentions that a heavily
>infested nest of falcon nestlings was lost once and their deaths were
>attributed to starvation and anemia from the numerous ticks on their
bodies.
>
>As a rehabber, I was taught to treat blood loss as bordering on major
>catastrophe and to stop it immediately.  Songbirds weighing just a few
grams
>can't afford to lose much blood.
>
>So my question is: is it possible these birds died due indirectly to the
>ticks, perhaps froze to death or starved to death in a weakened condition
or
>perhaps shock from blood loss?  The Pine Siskin was a bit skinny but I've
>seen worse.  The Junco was a bit underweight but nothing near
"hatchet-keeled".
>
>As active as my feeders are, I generally find a few dead birds during the
>winter.  Some freeze to death; some die of broken necks and/or head trauma
>when they fly into something (running from the Sharp-shinned who winters in
>our woods, I suspect).  But finding birds infested with ticks is a new
twist.
>
>Anybody else seen this?  Banders?  Rehabbers?
>
>Donna Bailey
>Winnsboro, SC
>e-mail: dsbailey@conterra.com
>URL: http://www.conterra.com/dsbailey
>     "Where are the Birds?  Migration across South Carolina"
>URL: http://www.conterra.com/dsbailey/audubon
>    "Columbia Audubon Society"
>