Oh dear, how will the West Seattle Birdcam folks handle this one? State wildlife experts want everybody to take their bird feeders out of service for a while or at least take extra steps to keep them mega-clean, because of a deadly outbreak. (At least this is an OK time of year for birds to be fine without feeders; there’s ample natural food such as bugs and flower nectar.)
Haven’t found that specific info yet but did find an online reference that hummingbird feeders should be changed/cleaned frequently in the summer so that heat fermentation doesn’t encourage this type of bacteria … From our standpoint, not knowing what sort of domicile you’re in (maybe you’re in The Junction apartment with a hummingbird feeder outside its window over Easy Street?), we’d say that in general, the best hummingbird “feeders” in summer are honeysuckle, salvia, and other similar plants. Our h-birds seem to be here round-the-clock because of those!
We haven’t seen any signs of trouble yet. We’re dismayed but we’re going the reduce and clean up route first. Fewer feeders, less feed, frequent washing with bleach, etc. Hopefully this will encourage the birds to get spread out until the outbreak subsides.
We’re hoping that we wont have to completely shut down, but we’ll do whats necessary.
Thanks for helping get the word out.
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