House or Purple Finch with Growth on Beak -- Advice? (1 Viewer)

[smitten]

House or Purple Finch with Growth on Beak -- Advice? (PHOTOS ATTACHED)

A few days ago, we had a Purple Finch (or possibly a House Finch--having a tough time making a positive ID) show up at our feeders that had a sort of growth on his beak and forehead. It seems he is becoming a regular diner here, and today I saw what I am guessing was his mate at the feeder with him, and she has the same weird mass on her beak, only smaller.

I emailed the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the person who responded recommended that I remove the feeders in case these finches are contagious. So I took them down and will disinfect them tonight, but I was wondering how long I should stop feeding. And what if this pair of finches keeps returning to my feeders?

Also, isn't it likely that they will visit other feeders in the area and possibly spread the disease(?) anyway? I certainly don't want to facilitate the spread of whatever it is these birds may have, but I was just curious as to how effective shutting down one feeding station (our yard) is to keeping the local bird population healthy.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts/advice/information!

P.S. I read somewhere that some birds will also stop for a drink at the hummingbird feeder. I was just getting ready to put mine up -- should I wait?

 

[Azzy]

Until you can be sure what the lumps are, and it's hard to know if you ever can be, I think it's a really good idea to not feed. Bird feeders are a great place for diseases etc to get passed around between birds, that's one reason why I'm unsure wheather I agree with it or not, because it's bringing birds in close contact with each other that often wouldn't be. Give it a bit of time, maybe a week or so and try putting your feeders back. If you see the birds back, perhaps try taking some photos of them and trying to get an idea of what it actually is on their beaks.

 

[stonechat1]

Is it possible to see a picture from these birds? I´m very interested.
Thanks in advance.

 

[smitten]

Sure.

Just attached some photos. They're not great... my 50mm lens wasn't really cutting it given the distance (and taking photos through the dirty kitchen window didn't do much to improve quality, either.) But, meh. Best I could get.

 

[stonechat1]

Thanks Jamie.
It´s totaly different from the disease which I saw sometimes here: pox.
At your birds the structure of the tumor looks too smooth for pox. Imho this may be ticks.

 

[smitten]

Ticks never even occurred to me, but it does look an awful lot like the bloated ticks I remember seeing on a stray dog that showed up at our house years ago. (We kept him on our front porch until we could get him cleaned up, and thought he had done his business all over the place--but it turned out to be ticks that had become so bloated they were just falling off. Disgusting.)

Whatever it is, I feel bad for the bird. It looks very uncomfortable and seems that it will eventually cause him serious problems. :\