Urgent Updates: Responding to Disease
Our fifth survey window ends this Saturday March 13. The sixth survey window starts Sunday March 14 and runs through Saturday April 3.
Response Needed from Volunteers - Protecting Our Birds from Disease
Salmonella, avian conjunctivitis, and other illness are increasingly being reported at bird feeders in the West. Depending on the severity of the outbreak and guidance from biologists, we are asking you to take these measures:
Idaho
Please take down your bird feeders and bird baths until April 1. If it is safe for feeders to be deployed again, we welcome volunteers to join us for Feeder Counts during the last count window (April 4 – April 24).
Utah, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, and Wyoming
Please clean feeders and bird baths at least weekly by removing all the seeds, washing the feeders with soapy water, and then soaking them in a 10% bleach solution. Allow the feeder to soak in the solution for 30 minutes before rinsing the bleach off thoroughly and letting the feeder dry completely before reinstalling it outside. IF YOU SEE SICK OR DEAD BIRDS, take down and remove all bird feeders and bird baths for at least 1 month. This will encourage birds to disperse and will help slow the transmission of the disease. If it is safe for feeders to be deployed again, we welcome volunteers to join us for Feeder Counts during the last count window (April 4 – April 24).
For more detail on cleaning and what to do if you see sick birds, please read Utah's Press Release here.
For more information, including what to do you if think you have sick birds at your feeder, see Project FeederWatch’s website. Don’t hesitate to contact rosyfinchstudy@gmail.com with questions.
Quick Volunteer Links
Don’t forget, as soon as you finish your survey, email a scan or photo of your datasheet to: rosyfinchstudy@gmail.com
The Rosy-finch Project website.
The Count Guide for everything you need to know.
The data sheet, now a fillable PDF!
The Training is available on YouTube.
Join the Facebook Group to share stories, photos, and ask questions!
If you know others who may be interested, they can still join here.
A Word from Our Data Managers
Before you submit your datasheet to rosyfinchstudy@gmail.com, make sure you have completed all the fields! Please remember to mark each of your surveys as Standard or Opportunistic. Standard surveys should be conducted once a survey window and be done on or as close as possible to the date you signed up for. Opportunistic surveys can be done at any time and as many as you’d like!
How the Project is Using RFID-Enabled Bird Feeders
Your Feeder Counts are just one of the methods we are using to unlock the mysteries of rosy-finches.
If we can track a bird, we can answer questions like its range and habitat, how many there are, and how long they live. But rosy-finches are lightweight (about that of a pencil), and many radio-transmitters and GPS devices are still too heavy for a small rosy-finch to carry around.
We are using Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to help answer our questions.
RFID is the same as technology as microchipping your dog or cat, but we put the “chip” in a bracelet (known as a “band”) on the rosy-finch’s leg.
After authorized biologists safely capture rosy-finches, fit them with the bands, and release them, we don’t need to chase after them. We let the rosy-finches come to us by putting the chip reader in bird feeders! In Utah, we have several of these custom-made bird feeders that are collecting data on visits from our banded rosy-finches. Our methods are proving successful in our understanding of rosy-finch populations and may be expanding across the West soon.
Rosy-finch Rewards! Selected Stories
Our next rosy-finch reward drawing will be for a Yeti mug. Volunteers that submit a Standard or Opportunistic Feeder Count during the fifth survey window are entered to win!
Annie Mull - Eden, Utah
Annie and her daughter in Moab. ©Annie Mull
“My first rosy-finch spotting was in 1990 when the various subspecies were still grouped into one species, and I've only seen a couple since then. Nevertheless, my ears pricked when I first heard about the Rosy-finch Project, and I was thrilled at the opportunity to contribute to its knowledge base.
The pandemic has given me the opportunity to work from my home with my feeders in full sight, and although I have been a birdwatcher for decades, this was my first year of getting to know the "regulars," including one mountain chickadee and 4 black-capped chickadees. Our feeders are also regularly visited by a plethora of Dark-eyed Juncos of various species, Spotted Towhees, American Goldfinches, Cassin's and House Finches, Downy Woodpeckers, Northern Flickers, Red-winged Blackbirds, the occasional colony of tens of Wild Turkeys, and at least one Sharp-shinned Hawk."
David Heldenbrand - Mapleton, Utah
Dave lives in Mapleton with his wife Jennifer, also a birder. Their close proximity to Mt. Timpanogos in the Wasatch Front led him to establishing a feeder site at the 6,600 foot elevation Sundance Nordic Center. Dave learned about Wild Utah Project and the Rosy-finch Project through the Utah Master Naturalist program, which he started last year after retiring from Utah Valley University.
Rob Tolley - Wyoming
Rob Tolley, a rosy-finch volunteer and one of the January Volunteers of the Month
“I've always enjoyed contributing to citizen science projects. In 1964 I was one of hundreds of Midwestern school kids who tagged Monarch butterflies for Dr. Fred Urqhart's migration studies. That project, and its results, taught me the importance of engaging volunteer researchers.
We enjoy the winter in the Wyoming high country and getting out and about in all kinds of weather, and we're excited that the Rosy-finches like the cold conditions here as much as we do! Our feeders on the porch are visited by hundreds of Rosy-finches every day.”