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Leigh Hedger/IndyStar
Indianapolis, bring out your bird feeders.
The Department of Natural Resources has lifted its moratorium on feeding birds in Marion, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Johnson and eight other counties, months after researchers discovered hundreds of birds were becoming sick and dying from a still-unknown illness.
The issue, primarily affecting songbirds such as American robins and blue jays, appears to be causing neurological symptoms such as tremors, stumbling, weakness, crusty discharge around the eyes and eye swelling in as many as 750 birds statewide.
The illness has also appeared in Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
In the last few months, Hoosiers have submitted more than 4,300 reports of sick and dead birds to the DNR. But even so, in a conversation with State Ornithologist Allisyn Gillet last month, IndyStar learned that investigators are still having a hard time understanding the cause of this illness.
“It might very well be that it’s a complex array of things that have caused the symptoms that we cannot tease apart,” Gillet told IndyStar. “We don’t know if there will be an end to the investigation.”
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DNR researchers in collaboration with those in other states are still investigating the cause of the illness. The birds have tested negative for several diseases including avian influenza, West Nile virus, salmonella, chlamydia, Newcastle disease virus, herpesviruses and Trichomonas parasites.
If you plan to bring your bird feeders back out, the DNR recommends you take the following steps:
- Make sure you’re not seeing sick or dead birds in your yard. If do you see birds with these symptoms, report them to the DNR online at on.IN.gov/sickwildlife.
- Clean your seed and suet feeders at least once every two weeks by scrubbing them with soap and water and then soaking them in a 10% bleach solution. Make sure they are thoroughly rinsed and dried before filled with birdseed.
- Clean your hummingbird feeders once per week with a 10% bleach solution, and make sure it’s rinsed thoroughly before you refill it.
Contact IndyStar reporter London Gibson at 317-419-1912 or lbgibson@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @londongibson.
Connect with IndyStar’s environmental reporters: Join The Scrub on Facebook.
IndyStar’s environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.
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