It is highly contagious, so we recommend that you discontinue feeding the bluebirds for awhile to be sure the disease is not spread to other birds at your feeders.

Please fill out a Sick Bird Form for this bird, found from the last main link on the Data Entry home page, and then send us the number assigned to the form so that we can archive the photo to accompany the form."

Of course, that is not what I was hoping to hear.

From what I understand, noone can definitely state that the bird has avian pox unless they microscopically evaluate some samples.

I guess the best you can do is remove standing water and stop feeding the birds for awhile, as they said, to remove two avenues of infection; and also scrub down feeders.

I don't know anything about rehabbers; but good luck with this.

If that is as bad as it gets, it's not bad.

Here is the irony of that kind of disease and others (like conjunctivitis): they are unfortunately passed from bird to bird because we have feeders, which create an unnatural number of birds foraging at the same spot. So the risk of passing disease from bird to bird is increased dramatically because there are more birds in one spot.

Keeping a feeder under these circumstances will contaminate other birds. So instead of one poxy bird, you may help create 10.

Bluebirds winter here, in central NJ, in snowy fields. This is because there is natural food available in the form of berries. For seed-eaters, such as titmice, etc, they have been wintering in snowy landscapes for millenium without feeders. I don't mean to be harsh or glib, but that's how natural selection works. The flocks move to other food sources (one of the best things about flying!! :)).

Good luck whatever your decision.

This is not the first time you have explained something so well to someone who barely knows the basic bird facts (that would be me :).

I did some reading in an attempt to help Mac60 with the pox problem, but your explanation of the essence of it was far more enlightening. You have a gift for talking about the way nature works.

Thanks for sharing such a thoughtful response.

Mac60 - Best of luck with this situation. Your birds are fortunate to have someone who cares so much about helping them out.

Gee, thanks! That was nice of you to say.

I think many people lose sight of the bigger picture when they deal with most things, and nature in particular. They focus on what they immediately see, not realizing there is much there they don't see. (Kind of like the moon. People say "The moon is out," but really, the moon is always there, we just don't see it.)

With bird feeding, people don't realize if and how they do or do not impact wildlife.

Think about this: People complain about hawks killing "their" birds at "their" feeders. But most, if not all feeders actually overtly feed other bird predators and in my opinion, increase certain bird-predator populations. Like squirrels and raccoons, which routinely raid bird nests for eggs and chicks in spring and summer. That has way more impact on your backyard than a hawk or fox taking birds, because the squirrel destroys the entire brood.

Same thing with Blue jays and Common grackles, who benefit from feeders and take eggs and chicks. The wrong predators destroy an entire brood, or kill the parents (like House sparrows do), and that, I think, affects natural selection. Puts prey survival down to luck instead of skill, smarts and health.

I don't have any problem with any native predators doing what they have done for millenium; but to artificially increase their populations seems to me questionable. It is very rare that our species promotes the populations of the right species (Bald eagles, Peregrines, wolves). We usually screw it up and regret it later (House sparrows, kudzo).

I am not a biologist. All the above is integrated into my basic understanding of how nature works, simplified as it is. I would like other nature lovers to think about it.

I am not promoting an end to bird feeding. I am just observing what may be consequences.