“Blown up” chaffinch

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Primrose
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Have had a chaffinch wandering around our garden for the past two days looking as if he,s been blown up like a balloon.
Am sure there,s something wrong with him. He can only move quite slowly. A disease of some kind?

Any thoughts ? Not much I can do for the poor chap. He’s still looking around for food and I,ve put some out but wonder if it’s this disease which causes birds’ throats to close up so they can,t swallow.

I don’t like it when nature goes wrong in my garden, I like it to be all sweetness and light!
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Diane
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'Preserve wildlife - pickle a rat'
Monika
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Trichomonosis has completely destroyed our greenfinch populations - we used to have flocks of them. Chaffinches are still about but in greatly reduced numbers, very sad. We ourselves are very particular about feeder hygiene, cleaning them regularly with Arkklens and hot water and moving them occasionally, but unfortunately it has made no difference.

Perhaps this nasty disease is also the reason we have seen no bramblings at all this winter? Though there may have been enough food in their native areas.
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Primrose
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I looked at it through binoculars. I put some tiny seeds out for it on the patio - niger seeds, sesame seeds and some chopped up sunflower seed hearts. It’s picking a few of them up but seems to be spitting them straight out again. Looks as if it’s having difficulty swallowing anything.

We disinfect our bird feeders regularly but of course birds are probably feeding in other places too where infections can build up..
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