Bird flue ??

[Mike170874]

I was out the weekend as I walked up to the edge of a big wood bordering some rape I noticed 4 pigeon didn't leave the trees with the flock that was sat up .I shot the first 2 then was surprised to see the other 2 didn't fly off. So I shot them too when I picked them up they were all skin and bones no meat at all covering the breasts .They looked healthy apart from that .I was thinking bird flue as I've been talking with games shooters up here and they say pigeons have been decimated this year with numbers at their lowest ever.

[royden]

Shot one in similar condition two weeks ago on a Shropshire shoot. Its keel was pronounced and no weight to it at all. Someone suggested it may be a migrant that had lost weight travelling.

[old'un]

More than likely they have pigeon canker, been very common the last few years.

[dead eye alan]

18 minutes ago, old'un said:

More than likely they have pigeon canker, been very common the last few years.

Too many acorns it was a good year for them.

[Fellside]

I have found pigeons in this condition a few times over decades. I don’t think it is bird flu. If they were bird flu cases, with partial paralysis, and being flightless, they wouldn’t have been up in a tree. Just my two penneth. 

[Manymissedpigeon]

I have noted one or two very thin birds in my area but I see this every year anyway. Hardly any of the oaks between York and Bedale have a single acorn on them that I have seen ( contrary to reports on here from other areas of the country) . A large beech tree in my drive which normally drops beech mast onto the road to be run over by passing cars has not had a pigeon near it as, again, no beechmast!
I’ve just been out today to check on a few farms that have game shoots to ask about last shoot day of the month and suddenly here are the pigeons in their hundreds so next week I and a friend will be out on two farms which finish their small syndicate shooting this weekend. I will be looking around for signs of sad looking birds but the odd ones I’ve shot recently have only ivy berries in the crops. Still not many pigeons in the York area, at least not over the last, be it still wet, weekend.

[old'un]

16 minutes ago, Manymissedpigeon said:

I have noted one or two very thin birds in my area but I see this every year anyway. Hardly any of the oaks between York and Bedale have a single acorn on them that I have seen ( contrary to reports on here from other areas of the country) . A large beech tree in my drive which normally drops beech mast onto the road to be run over by passing cars has not had a pigeon near it as, again, no beechmast!
I’ve just been out today to check on a few farms that have game shoots to ask about last shoot day of the month and suddenly here are the pigeons in their hundreds so next week I and a friend will be out on two farms which finish their small syndicate shooting this weekend. I will be looking around for signs of sad looking birds but the odd ones I’ve shot recently have only ivy berries in the crops. Still not many pigeons in the York area, at least not over the last, be it still wet, weekend.

I don't think its acorns or bird flu, next time you find one in poor condition have a look down its throat, if you see redness and a cheesy like growths its canker, it kills thousands of birds every year.

[martinj]

Canker caused by Beech masts. In a "mast year" such as it is now, thousands die of it. It happens approximately every five years.

I went for a walk last week and there were dead pigeons everywhere under "sitty trees" around the field boundaries.

[old'un]

2 hours ago, martinj said:

Canker caused by Beech masts. In a "mast year" such as it is now, thousands die of it. It happens approximately every five years.

I went for a walk last week and there were dead pigeons everywhere under "sitty trees" around the field boundaries.

Canker is not caused by beechmast, nearly all birds carry the Trichomonas organism (canker), It lives within the digestive tract and cannot survive long outside the bird.

 

[martinj]

Call it what you want but these deaths occur regularly and coincide with "Mast years" when Beech trees produce higher than normal quantities of masts (Nuts.)

[old'un]

27 minutes ago, martinj said:

Call it what you want but these deaths occur regularly and coincide with "Mast years" when Beech trees produce higher than normal quantities of masts (Nuts.)

pure coincidence, beech nuts do not cause large numbers of birds to die.

[martinj]

40 minutes ago, old'un said:

pure coincidence, beech nuts do not cause large numbers of birds to die.

Let's just say that there are those who would disagree

[old'un]

1 minute ago, martinj said:

Let's just say that there are those who would disagree

I do

there is no proof of such poisoning where thousands of birds die from eating beech nuts.

Edited January 10 by old'un