Give the Gift of FeederWatch.. Purchase a gift certificate for your recipient in the U.S. or a Birds Canada membership in Canada.
Find out what Project FeederWatch is, its history, and more
Find out how you FeederWatch, when you can FeederWatch, and what you'll need to do to get started
Review these instructions carefully before you count and enter data
Find out about types of feeders and types of foods, and where to place your feeder
Feeding Birds FAQs
Explore the winter distribution, food, and feeder preferences of common feeder birds.
Find out about color and plumage variations, bald heads, and deformed bills
Unusual Birds Gallery
Find out about bird disease and identifying the signs of bird disease
Sick Birds Gallery
Find out how to identify birds and download identification tools
Learn how to help birds as they seek out food sources, nesting habitat, protection, and more
Find educational resources for teachers, group leaders, and families
Find an article archive packed with lots of great bird study information
Learn about house finch eye disease
Review content from current and past BirdSpotter photo contests
Keep up to date with the latest FeederWatch happenings
These are exemplary FeederWatchers!
Send us your photos! Show us your count site, your birds, or you watching your site with loved ones!
Visit our live FeederWatch feedercams!
Cornell Lab of Ornithology feeders
Ontario (winter only)
See what birds occur the most by region
Explore species by state/province
See where FeederWatchers are
Graphs of regional population trends and distributions
Explore papers that have used FeederWatch data
Lab scientists analyze the data submitted by FeederWatch participants.
See birds well outside their winter range submitted to Project FeederWatch.
Start here for data entry and personal data review and exploration
Keep live track of your counts using the FeederWatch mobile app
Stephen Ross
Rodney, MI, United States
Possible first record of a Purple Finch with hofi/amgo eye disease??? This bird has been acting sick for about a week. If I can find the body when it dies, does Cornell want it? I have a state and federal salvage permit through Univ of Michigan as a subpermitee.
Eye problems
Female purple finch with hofi/amgo eye disease, Feb 5, 2017. Has been observed as a sick-ish bird for about a week but this is the first day I was certain it had the eye disease.
Dear Stephen, Thanks for reporting this and submitting some photographs of a purple finch with severe conjunctivitis. Although purple finches are reported less frequently with conjunctivitis caused by Mycoplasma gallisepticum than house finches this is not rare. The first confirmed case was reported by Barry Hartup in his study in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases 36 (2): 257–264 in . 2000. doi: 10.7589/0090-3558-36.2.257 The full title of his papers is: Mycoplasmal conjunctivitis in songbirds from New York. B K Hartup , G V Kollias, D H Ley.
Stephen, I saw your post while reading 2021-2022 updates around Michigan. Were you able to get that Purple Finch tested? Looks more like Finch Trichomonosis, which has been devastating to Purple Finches in the past. Just curious what you found out.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Comment *
Name *
Email *
Website
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.