Heidi Faulkner, Project Assistant says:

Hello, Thank you for your concern about sick birds. We are only able to collect eye disease data from Project FeederWatch participants, who submit reports of eye disease along with their regular counts. You can learn more about eye disease and Project FeederWatch on our website.

Whenever a sick bird comes to your feeder, we recommend that you remove the feeders the sick bird is using for a couple of weeks to ensure that disease is not being spread at your feeders. While the feeders are down, clean them thoroughly with a diluted bleach solution or very hot water, rinse them, and let them dry completely. Once you put the feeders back up, be sure to clean them every week or two. If sick birds return, avoid using feeders with ports that birds put their heads into and clean your feeders at least weekly. Find information about how to clean your feeders on our website.

You are welcome to count birds for FeederWatch that are attracted to any feeders you keep up or to water features or plantings that you maintain in your count site. If you remove all your feeders for most of a month, you can indicate the months of the year when you have feeders up on the site description form, found in the Manage Count Sites section of the Your Data section of our website or by tapping the Site Description icon in the mobile app. Be sure that the feeders indicated on the site description form reflect what you had in your count site for the majority of your counts.

If you are participating in Project FeederWatch and would like to share your photos, you can submit them to our Sick Birds gallery by clicking on the “Share a photo of a sick or injured bird” button near the bottom of the Your Data home page.