do all birds have lice? (1 Viewer)

[drafthorse39]

do all wild birds have lice?

do all wild birds have lice?

 

[Anthony Morton]

do all wild birds have lice?

Hi drafthorse,

In my opinion any bird is capable of carrying both internal and external parasites but it doesn't follow that they are bound to suffer from an infestation all of the time.

Regards,

Anthony

 

[MikeDale]

I don't know about lice but I was helping out with ringing/banding of Swifts in England a while back and a lot of them had these horrible repulsive flat flies on them. EWWWWWWWWW!!!!!

FYI This was long term ringing efort in a small village that had been going on for several years and involved climbing into roof spaces to get the young swifts before they fledged.

 

[Rasmus Boegh]

The vast majority (if not all) birds have some sort of lice in them. Normally, this pose no big problem. I've occasionally seen birds that were virtually covered in lice, but these were individuals that already were sick in some way and therefore unable to perform the usual cleaning of their plumage.

 

[Edward]

Interesting, as I was considering this only yesterday as I was removing a fresh road kill Great Skua (weighed a ton, the most "muscular," solidly built bird I've ever handled) off the main road in SE Iceland. Didn't note any lice but it did cross my mind as I picked it up.

E

 

[gw4aurora]

I don't know about lice but I was helping out with ringing/banding of Swifts in England a while back and a lot of them had these horrible repulsive flat flies on them. EWWWWWWWWW!!!!!

FYI This was long term ringing efort in a small village that had been going on for several years and involved climbing into roof spaces to get the young swifts before they fledged.

Hi Mike,
Remember back in the seventies when I had been out ringing Swifts with a couple of lads.We went to the pub after and one of those parasites ran down the arm of one of the lads. The barmaid screemed and dropped my pint.

Chris.

 

[drafthorse39]

i have a small pool out sidei in the backyard for my ducks if. wildbirds were to bath in it could it be passed to my ducks?

 

[MikeDale]

Hi Mike,
Remember back in the seventies when I had been out ringing Swifts with a couple of lads.We went to the pub after and one of those parasites ran down the arm of one of the lads. The barmaid screemed and dropped my pint.

Chris.

Horrible little critters! Yuck!

 

[christineredgate]

Bees do,someone sent me a couple of digibinned pics of bees,and they were covered in lice around the neck area.