Bird House & Bird Feeder
Disease & Cleaning
Information

Information on cleaning birdhouses and birds feeders,
and the primary backyard wild bird diseases.

Cleaning Pole & Building Mounted Birdhouses

The pole, tree and building mounted birdhouses, adobe, mission, log cabin and dairy barn, are easy to clean.  Remove the three screws on the bottom and slowly lower the birdhouse bottom.  If you clean after a wet period the bottom may be a little swollen and difficult to remove.  Wait a couple of days for it to dry.

Always use rubber gloves and a breathing mask.  Dispose the nesting material by burning, if legal, or place into a sealed bag.  Use a solution of 10% bleach and 90% water, carefully scrub the inside and outside of the birdhouse with a soft brush.  Rinse thoroughly with a light and fine spray, let sit until totally dry, then reassemble the birdhouse.

There is always a possibility of contamination on your clothes, so use care in cleaning yourself before handling food, family members or pets.  Also, you should never bring the bag with the old nests into the house.

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Cleaning Post Mounted Birdhouses

The post mounted birdhouses, country home, hay barn and cupola barn, are easy to clean.  Remove the three screws on the bottom and slowly raise the birdhouse.  If you clean after a wet period the birdhouse may be a little swollen and difficult to remove.  Wait a couple of days for it to dry.

Always use rubber gloves and a breathing mask.  Dispose the nesting material by burning, if legal, or place into a sealed bag.  Use a solution of 10% bleach and 90% water, carefully scrub the inside and outside of the birdhouse with a soft brush.  Rinse thoroughly with a light and fine spray, let sit until totally dry, then reassemble the birdhouse.

There is always a possibility of contamination on your clothes, so use care in cleaning yourself before handling food, family members or pets.  Also, you should never bring the bag with the old nests into the house.

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Cleaning Bird Feeders

The platform mounted birdfeeders, country home and hay barn, are easy to clean.  Remove the birdfeeders platform holding screws. The country home has two in front and the hay barn has two in front and two in back.  Turn the birdfeeder over and remove the four screws on the bottom of the country home and six screws on the hay barn.  Carefully lift the house off the deck.  If you clean after a wet period the birdfeeder may be a little swollen and difficult to remove.  Wait a couple of days for it to dry.

Always use rubber gloves and a breathing mask.  Use a solution of 10% bleach and 90% water, carefully scrub the inside and outside of the birdfeeder with a soft brush.  Rinse thoroughly with a light and fine spray, let sit until totally dry, then reassemble the birdhouse.

One more area to consider, bird baths. You need to change the water often. Bird baths can become containated real fast. The other problem with bird baths is it can become a mosquito a breeding ground if the water becomes warm and stagnant.

There is always a possibility of contamination on your clothes, so use care in cleaning yourself before handling food, family members or pets.

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Primary Wild Bird Diseases

House Finch Eye Disease

is a bacterium called, Mycoplasma gallisepticum which typically causes respiratory ailments in domestic birds.

In House Finches, the disease is restricted to the eyes and sinus cavities. Recognizable symptoms are eyes that appear runny, crusted and swollen. The birds may also appear weakened or blinded. Other species besides House Finch that have been identified with the disease include American Goldfinch and Downy Woodpecker, both common feeder birds.

To reduce disease potential, keep areas under feeders clean and occasionally wash feeders with bleach solutions and rinse. If disease appears epidemic, stop feeding immediately to curtail its transmission.

Salmonella Disease

Usually when we see large numbers of dead birds (pine siskins are the most common) it is because of disease outbreaks effecting the local population.  The culprit most often is salmonellosis (a bacteria) which is spread through unclean backyard feeding areas.  Many pine siskins were found dead of salmonellosis in Okanogan county last May.  Other songbirds, such as finches, are also effected by this disease, though we tend to see more siskins with the problem.

The best bet is to make sure that all feeders and water baths are kept very clean; even the ground underneath feeding stations.  Scrubbing feeders once a week with a dilute bleach solution should do the trick.  Just make sure to rinse well.

Since salmonellosis can be spread to humans via contact, please where gloves when handling any dead birds.  Also, wear a dust mask when you clean out your feeders, to prevent inhalation of the bacteria.

West Nile Virus

Presents a threat to public, equine, and animal health. The most serious manifestation of the virus infection is fatal encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) in humans and horses, as well as mortality in certain domestic and wild birds.

Infectious mosquitoes carry virus particles in their salivary glands and infect susceptible bird species during blood-meal feeding.

In 1999, 62 cases of severe disease, including 7 deaths, occurred in the New York area. In 2000, 17 cases have been reported through September, including 1 death.

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