Backyard Buddies

[mjs1973]

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



Close up of the eye.



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

[julsoph]

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

That squirrel is super cute.

Emily

[Copy_Kot]

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.

[OBie]

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

[Copy_Kot]

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/

[mjs1973]

Thanks for the link Paul!

[Copy_Kot]

Thanks for the link Paul!

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.

[Bevb]

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

[AmberC]

Aww poor little thing! Good shots tho.

[quetzal]

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.