A sick bird at the feeder

The signs

A sick bird often sits fluffed up and still, stays put when the others fly off, and lets you walk close. Three diseases show up most at feeders, Cornell’s Project FeederWatch explains:

House finch eye disease: red, swollen, runny or crusty eyes, sometimes swollen shut. It spreads where birds touch the same feeder ports, and it has reached American goldfinches, evening grosbeaks and purple finches too.

Salmonellosis: a thin or puffed-up bird, often sluggish and easy to approach, sometimes with swollen eyelids; some birds carry it with no sign at all. It passes through droppings in food and water, and outbreaks hit pine siskins, redpolls and goldfinches hardest.

Avian pox: wart-like growths on the bare skin around the eyes and bill and on the legs and feet. It spreads by contact with sick birds, with surfaces such as feeders, and through food and water.

What to do

Project FeederWatch’s advice for a sick bird at the feeder, step by step:

1. Take down the feeders the sick bird has been using and leave them down for a couple of weeks, so the birds spread out and stop passing the disease at your feeders.
2. Empty and scrub the bird bath as well: salmonella travels in water as well as food.
3. Wearing gloves, wash each feeder in hot soapy water, soak it for 10 minutes in 1 part bleach to 9 parts water, rinse it well and let it dry completely.
4. Rake up the seed, hulls and droppings under the feeders and bag them with the trash.
5. Leave the sick bird alone and keep cats and dogs indoors. Only veterinarians and federally licensed wildlife rehabilitators may treat a wild bird; for anyone else, keeping most wild birds is against the law.
6. If the bird cannot get away or plainly needs help to survive, call a wildlife rehabilitator or your state wildlife agency.
7. When the feeders go back up, clean them every week or two, give them more space apart, and fill only what the birds finish in a day or two.

Which feeders spread what

Eye disease passes at the ports of tube feeders, where finches feed face to face. Salmonella builds up where birds stand in their food: trays, platforms and the ground under the feeders. After an outbreak, start again with the feeders that are quickest to take apart and wash, and bring the trays back last.

A break helps most where few neighbors feed birds. Where many do, taking yours down can crowd birds onto the feeders that remain, Project FeederWatch notes, so cleaning yours more often matters as much as the break.

Bird flu and backyard feeders

The H5N1 bird flu that has spread since 2022 hits poultry, waterfowl and birds of prey hard, but few cases have been found in songbirds and other usual feeder visitors, and they pass the virus on poorly. Cornell Lab’s summary of USDA advice, updated through January 2026: the risk of an outbreak among wild songbirds is low, and there is no official advice to take feeders down unless you also keep chickens, ducks or other poultry.

If you keep poultry, the main thing is to keep wild birds away from the flock’s food and water; then take your bird feeders down, or keep them well away from the flock. Wherever your state asks for more, such as taking feeders and baths down, follow your state.

If you find a dead bird

Don’t pick it up with bare hands, and keep pets away from it. Your state wildlife agency can tell you whether it wants the bird for testing. If you must move it, wear gloves and a mask, put it in two garbage bags, throw the gloves and mask away, and wash your hands with soap and warm water.