WILD birds, in general, are always healthy.

We take them for granted, always flying about or hopping around our gardens but there is a silent killer out there which affects several species from time to time.

Birds of prey, crows, wood pigeons, feral pigeons, collared doves, greenfinches and chaffinches are all affected species.

This silent killer is a parasitic disease called trichomoniasis, or more commonly called canker.

At Roger’s Wildlife Rescue we mostly handle collared doves and wood pigeons suffering from this horrible disease, which looks like a thick cheesy substance mostly coating the throat and inside of the beak of affected birds, gradually cutting off the air supply.

It can be treated successfully if caught early enough, but sadly infected birds will fly off and avoid capture for days before they are weak enough to be caught, often by which time treatment is too late.

Recently large populations of greenfinches have been wiped out nationally with this.

Worryingly, during winter and spring it seems chaffinches are being infected and I have found at least 12 birds dead or dying in my own garden. This number is high for one garden and shows the species is having a problem. My bird feeders are cleaned regularly and to help control this parasite it is vital that if you feed birds you must regularly clean out the plastic feeders with boiling water, at the least, periodically to avoid contact infection.Also change the feeding area from time to time to avoid build up of the disease.

  • Roger Musselle runs Roger’s Wildlife Rescue in Woodingdean