Our Greenfinches suffered badly a few years ago but appear to have bounced back now. As distressing as it is at the time, the biologist in me sees the disease as just another selective force. Survival of the fittest and all that.
Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
But trichomoniasis would seem to be a disease that is spread, in the modern world at least , by birds sharing dirty and infectious feeding areas.
You are right of course. But those birds that are resistant to the disease will benefit from the food and then go on to breed and pass on their resistant genes to a future generation.
You and I know how important it is to regularly clean our feeders but there are many times when this isn't practical, especially if you're out all day and if you've only got one feeder that's full of seed most of the time. Some of the 'dirtiest' feeding stations I have seen have been at nature reserves, simply due to the volume of usage and the lack of clear individual responsibility for cleaning.
Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
I cleaned and re-sited my bird feeders at least once a fortnight, after seeing trichomoniasis in some chaffinches soon after we moved in. But in April the disease reappeared with a vengeance, with goldfinches and bullfinches affected as well as chaffinches. I stopped feeding the birds straight away, since there wasn't anything else I could do to improve the hygiene; since then I've seen a couple of affected birds, so I can only think that some of my bird-feeding neighbours are less careful about cleaning their feeding stations. It's a horrible thing to see, as @pansyface says. I'll start feeding again in autumn once it gets cold, and see what happens...
In the meantime the finches have been visiting my meadow area for seeds. We had a linnet on a dandelion clock yesterday, and there's a family of bullfinches who regard my garden as their home.
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
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I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
You are right of course. But those birds that are resistant to the disease will benefit from the food and then go on to breed and pass on their resistant genes to a future generation.
You and I know how important it is to regularly clean our feeders but there are many times when this isn't practical, especially if you're out all day and if you've only got one feeder that's full of seed most of the time. Some of the 'dirtiest' feeding stations I have seen have been at nature reserves, simply due to the volume of usage and the lack of clear individual responsibility for cleaning.
I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
In the meantime the finches have been visiting my meadow area for seeds. We had a linnet on a dandelion clock yesterday, and there's a family of bullfinches who regard my garden as their home.