[cobirds] Re: Black-capped chickadee with deformed beak

To follow up on this topic, after cleaning and taking down the feeders for 2 weeks, this chickadee hasn't returned.  

Because I was curious about the reported rate of birds with deformed beaks in Colorado, so I asked the Alaska Science Center which has been collecting reports on birds with deformed beaks about it.  I finally heard back from them today. Here's the reply from the biologist Lisa Pajot:

"As far as I can tell, your report is the first for a deformed black-capped chickadee. We have had several reports of deformed mountain chickadees and we have had around 50 reports of various species of deformed birds from Colorado over the years."

I hope that the chickadee that I had seen really just had an injury instead of the virus spreading to Colorado.

Phoenix Kwan

Broomfield, CO

On Saturday, February 23, 2019 at 7:51:53 PM UTC-7, phoen...@gmail.com wrote:

I found this chickadee with deformed beak in my yard yesterday.  There may be even one more chickadee like this hanging out in my yard because I got a brief look at one today with just extra long beak and not twisted.

According to some research, such birds carries a new form of virus but scientists haven't established the causal relationship between the virus and the deformed beak yet  (https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/08/twisted-beaks/). Time to sterilize the feeders again *sigh*

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