Backyard Buddies

Here are a couple shots from the backyard yesterday. The house finch looks like it has something wrong with it's eye.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/155/4...e89a0510ca.jpg

Close up of the eye.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/152/4...62b2554d82.jpg

This is one of at least 7 squirrels that like to raid our bird feeders, but we don't mind.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/145/4...27fd196b45.jpg

Aw...poor buddy. :( I wonder what happened to his eye?

That squirrel is super cute.

Emily

That eye thing is very strange. I get a lot of house finches with at least one eye like that... I wonder if they have some kind of disease, or if it's just an injury.

I remember reading about an eye disease that was particularly prevalent in house finches. It spreads quickly. That's all I remember.

The disease is called mycoplasmal conjunctivitis, and gold finches get it too (I love Google :) ). Here is a link to learn more about it, you can also participate in their survey to track the disease. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/hofi/

Thanks for the link Paul!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mjs1973

Thanks for the link Paul!

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No problem, I'm glad you posted the images... thank you. I had always meant to ask Paulnj about their eyes but just figured it was due to a nasty pecking mishap or other injury... Your thread got me thinking about it some more.

Ooo! nasty, poor thing, it even looks like the eye is missing.

Aww poor little thing! Good shots tho.

Cute squirrel! Poor little bird, thats a shame. Several times in the past few months I thought i saw a female house finch with a strange looking eye, not as bad as this one though.