Cornell Experts Not Overly Alarmed by Mysterious Songbird Sickness

Connecticut DEEP and The Connecticut Audubon Society issue 'all clear' as of Friday, August 20th

Dear Friends,

We know that you love your backyard birds and that you've been anxious for an update regarding the mysterious bird illness reported across several states this spring and summer.

We're happy to share the news that Connecticut DEEP has lifted their advisory issued July 8th related to the usage of bird feeders and bird baths.  More information from DEEP can be found here and from The Connecticut Audubon Society can be found here.

We're happy to report some very encouraging news from Cornell University experts quoted in a recent article titled "Cornell Experts Not Overly Alarmed by Mysterious Songbird Sickness."

The article quotes Elizabeth Bunting, Senior Extension Associate at the Cornell Wildlife Health Lab as saying, "Over the course of weeks, no one was finding anything infectious. They did a lot of testing but could not come up with any disease process, and the rehabilitators were telling us they were trying antibiotics and things like that, but they did not have great effectiveness.”

Now for the encouraging news! According to Bunting, "Information coming out of the National Wildlife Health Center and some of the other states said that the cases were declining all of a sudden. That would not be typical of an infectious disease outbreak. You wouldn't expect an infectious disease to just spontaneously go away. The distribution of states where this spontaneously popped up was an exact match for the cicada emergence map, and it is a very strange distribution of states for this kind of outbreak."

Researchers will continue to monitor and study the situation, but the article says, "Bunton [sic] expressed that the outbreak should not be a cause of alarm. The diminishing outbreak does not pose any safety threats to humans, nor does it threaten the stability of the various songbird species."

The health and well-being of birds is our number one priority! The key to keeping birds safe is to ALWAYS keep bird feeders and bird baths clean and to follow recommendations for Responsible Bird Feeding.

We believe that a caring, observant public, which our WBU customers most definitely are, actually helps provide valuable information in the effort to help #SaveTheSongBirds in these situations.

We will continue share updates as they become available. Thank you for your many expressions of concern for Wild Birds Unlimited and for all you do to care for the birds in your backyard.

We encourage you to share this information with anyone who finds joy in feeding and watching our feathered friends.