History of Research (en anglais)

Starting in 1994, because of the efforts of participants across North America, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology started the House Finch Disease Survey. This survey collected data on the spread and prevalence of a bacterial disease that now affects House Finches from the Atlantic to Pacific coasts. These data have been invaluable for documenting the spread of the disease and have motivating research that seeks to understand the reasons for persistence of the disease as well as its longer-term impact on House Finch abundance.

In 2008, the House Finch Disease Survey ended as a stand-alone project, but monitoring the disease continued through the data collection protocol in Project FeederWatch. Now, in 2013, biologists at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology are renewing efforts to collect data on this disease because it is continuing to spread to new areas of North America.

We have modified the data collection method within the FeederWatch protocol to allow for more accurate information about the presence and absence of the disease, and we are actively encouraging all FeederWatchers to look for signs of the disease in their own house finches and report whether they see it or not. Importantly, looking for the disease and NOT seeing signs of it is as valuable to report as observations of disease presence. See our recent blog post here