MORGANTOWN — Clean your bird feeders, but unless you live in the state’s Eastern Panhandle, don’t take them down.
Jim Crum, a wildlife biologist with the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources, said the reaction to a statement put out Friday by the WVDNR regarding a mysterious illness in birds has been misinterpreted by some.
“If you look at the release, it says that’s recommended for the people in the outbreak area,” he said. “Everywhere else, it’s a good time to talk about bird feeder hygiene, which should be taking place all the time, not just when there’s a problem.”
The statement explains that birds from Berkeley and Jefferson counties have been submitted by the WVDNR to the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, where diagnostics are pending.
It also notes that most reports of sick and dying birds in West Virginia have come from the state’s eastern panhandle counties.
Katie Fallon, who chairs the board of directors for the Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia, in Cheat Lake, said they’re not receiving reports or seeing animals that would indicate the illness is in the Morgantown area.
“We get calls about everything, so it doesn’t seem to be something that’s prevalent in our area at this time. If it was we would be hearing about it,” she said.
In May, reports began accumulating in Washington, D.C., Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia describing sick and dying birds, noting swollen eyes with crusty discharge, neurological signs and behavioral abnormalities.
The cause of what’s being called an “avian mortality event” is yet to be determined.
“Right now, I think there’s a bunch of misinformation out there,” Crum said. “I saw posts saying this is a virus. It’s not, as far as we can tell. I think that’s part of the hype, coming out of the pandemic everybody is keyed in on viruses.”
One of the ideas being floated is that the illness is tied to the cicada hatch taking place this summer.
Fallon said the conservation center did see a rash of similar issues in 2016, also during a cicada hatch.
“We admitted several birds with these very same symptoms and the species that seem to be affected so far are Starlings, Grackles and Blue Jays, sort of the bigger birds that eat a lot of different foods,” she said.
“In 2016, those are the three species that we admitted with these symptoms … but the interesting thing is we were having, here in Morgantown, our big cicada hatch. So it’s kind of interesting to me. I don’t know if we’ll figure out if there’s a connection.”
She said tests performed on the birds at the time were ultimately inconclusive.
On Friday, the WVDNR asked people in the outbreak area to cease feeding birds, clean and disinfect bird feeders, avoid handling birds and keep pets away from sick or dead birds.
It also asked West Virginians to contact their DNR district office if they encounter sick or dead birds. Locally, that’s the District 1 office, in Farmington, 304-825-6787.
Fallon said folks can also contact the Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia, at 304-906-5438.
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