Diseased Bird: Eye Problems on Male House Sparrow on Feb. 17, 2019

A single male House Sparrow was observed to be behaving strangely. The sparrow tried to repeatedly scratch its right eye on a small branch and appeared to have a pink ring around its left eye. As well, a small pink bulge appeared to be on or near the right eye of the bird.

Male House Sparrow was observed twice to be ‘sleeping’ alone on bird feeder around 10:30am EST and was again observed ‘sleeping’ close to the ground on a lower bar of a swinging bench in the backyard around 2:51pm EST.

The sparrow was easy to approach and an approximate 1-2m distance between the bird was obtained before it flew to a nearby branch. As well, when approaching the sparrow, loud noises were made as I stepped on semi-frozen snow. The bird was reluctant to move despite these noises being made so close to it.