Anyone else hearing of, or seeing, this in their area? We have found one bird quite sick, then dead; and we've observed a couple others that were probably sick.
Below, I'm simply pasting in what I saw that someone else had written:
"Per the Ohio Department of Natural Resources website: “Recently, it has been observed that songbirds in Ohio are being affected by a disease. The primary species affected at this time are blue jays, common grackles, European starlings, American robins, and house sparrows. Ohio counties experiencing the bulk of the outbreak so far include Brown, Butler, Clark, Clermont, Delaware, Franklin, Greene, Hamilton, Montgomery, and Warren counties."
"No definitive cause(s) of illness or death have been determined at this time. We advise that people please stop feeding birds, and take down and clean bird feeders and birdbaths with 10% bleach solution, particularly if they are seeing sick/dead birds in their area (as recommended by USGSThis link will open in a new window). Doing these things can help slow the spread of the disease.” "
I've been hearing of this for weeks. Sad.
Today I heard someone posit that perhaps all the Cicadas that we had during the "Brood X" invasion had absorbed or ingested herbicides underground before emerging, then the birds who ate the Cicadas got sick. I really don't know, but that sounds at least plausible.