Some great questions were asked during the seminar and here I will provide an overview of the answers.

1) What causes House Finch eye disease?

We have strong evidence that symptoms particularly conjunctivitis (watery or crusty eyes, eversion of conjunctival tissue) and associated lethargy occur because of a current or recent infection with Mycoplasma gallisepticum (bacteria). Why House Finches in particular are so susceptible is not clear and is still a current area of study. Since eastern House Finches were introduced as a relatively small founder population (pet stores released finches from Long Island in 1940 after regulations were passed forbidding the sale of wild birds), limited genetic diversity could contribute strongly to their susceptibility.

2) How is it spread between birds?

While this too is a current area of study, we know that contact between susceptible birds and infected individuals or infected surfaces (like feeders) can result in disease transmission. It is also possible, but untested at this point, that finches can be infected by contact with asymptomatic carriers (birds carrying Mycoplasma, but not showing symptoms). These can be other House Finches or other bird species the finches often interact with like American Goldfinches, House Sparrows, Titmice, Chickadees, etc. The bacterium itself can survive on non-living surfaces for quite a while, from a few days to weeks depending upon environmental conditions.

3) Can it be spread to other organisms?

Yes. So far we know of quite a few bird species (it is not clear if other taxa are infected) including Purple Finches, American Goldfinches, House Sparrows, Evening Grosbeaks, Pine Grosbeaks, Black-capped Chickadees, Blue Jays, Dark-eyed Juncos, Downy Woodpeckers, and even a European Starling. While some individuals of these species show symptoms similar to those of House Finches, for the most part they are not severely affected.

4) Is it related to other mycoplasmal diseases like walking pneumonia?

I am not certain of the answer to this question, but I can tell you that people are not at risk of infection with the House Finch strain of M. gallisepticum (at least at this point in time). Let’s hope it doesn’t mutate into a human-attacking variant.

5) What is the treatment or cure?

Actually, a number of common antibiotic medications can clear infections in finches. Interestingly, we have qualitative evidence that either the virulence of the pathogen has declined over time or finches are evolving stronger immune responses in wild populations. Early studies of the disease indicated that mortality levels were very high in affected finches, but from recent field and laboratory studies we have found that a high proportion of birds recover from infections (or rather recover from clinical signs of infection - conjunctivitis). The bacteria can “hide” in various organs of the body, which makes a true non-detection of the pathogen difficult. So do not fear; at this point it is unlikely that House Finch populations will face extinction due to M. gallisepticum infections.

6) Is it found on the west coast yet?

Yes. We know it has reached the west coast, but it looks as if the pathogen is spreading at a much slower rate as compared to how it spread in the east. Why this is so is currently under investigation, but it could have something to do with genetic diversity of western House Finches or behavioral differences. Western finches do not have a tendency to migrate like some individuals in the eastern USA do, and movement of animals will certainly increase the rate of spread of a pathogen. Also, western finches do not rely as heavily on backyard feeders. In the east, feeding stations tend to artificially induce clumping of large interacting groups, which increases the potential for disease transmission.

7) What are the major disease threats on the west coast? West Nile Virus?

It is hard to pin down a major disease threat to west coast birds. A number of “nasty” pathogens abound, and certain bird species may be more vulnerable to infection than others. Avian pox in particular appears to be more of a threat to birds in the western US, and its symptoms can be confused with those of M. gallisepticum infection. This definitely makes large-scale monitoring efforts (e.g., House Finch Disease Survey) more difficult when there is uncertainty in the assignment of disease.

Well, I hope this sheds some light on a few of the mysteries surrounding House Finch-Mycoplasma gallisepticum dynamics. If anything, it serves to reinforce the notion that finding answers always seems to lead to further questions.

Chris: we used the House Finch Eye Disease study as a good example of the benefits of citizen science data in our web seminar on September 26. Two things that are really great about using citizen science data are the ability to gather data over a long period of time and across a large geographic region.

We had a very interactive chat session going, and the teachers raised lots of great questions. A few that I remember were:

• What causes House Finch Eye Disease?
• How is it spread between birds?
• Can it be spread to other organisms?
• Is it related to other mycoplasmal diseases like walking pneumonia?
• What is the treatment or cure?
• Is it found on the west coast yet?
• What are the major disease threats on the west coast? West Nile Virus?

In the web seminar, we also discussed how teachers might address their questions. We mentioned they could conduct a study, analyze existing data, or synthesize reference materials.

Here’s a challenge for visitors to this blog:

Using Chris’ strategy, can you identify which questions on this list might be most suitable for conducting a study?

Before I begin, I would like to thank Colleen McLinn, Robert Payo, and Jennifer Schaus for inviting me to particpate in this blog - many thanks guys.

The primary motivation behind any study (regardless of whether the study species is a bird or not) should be to address an interesting question. You know that coming up with a good question always starts by making observations about some phenomenon. Sounds easy, right? The truth is, it is easy to come up with some question (e.g. Why do birds fly? Why do House Sparrows eat primarily on the ground and not at my birdfeeder?), but defining a good question takes some thought.

Let’s deconstruct the process. Who is the intended audience? Is it Ornithologists (aka birdologists), an NSF granting agency, or possibly a fifth grade classroom? Certainly different groups have different interests and motivations. Ornithologists might be jazzed about addressing how forest fragmentation affects reproductive success of neotropical migratory songbirds because there is a major gap in our (science) collective knowledge about the impacts of human alterations to the landscape. Fifth graders on the other hand might be motivated to ask a basic question to get an idea of how the process of science works, such as, “do House Finches prefer to eat black oil sunflower seeds or thistle at bird feeders? You get the idea, right?

Okay, so we know who our intended audience will be and what kind of moitivation they have, so now we have to fine tune a question that actually interests us enough to pursue it. There are plenty of worthy questions out there in need of assesment, but if you are not sufficiently interested in finding out the answer, then chances are that the research will not be completed (or even worse, will not be done properly). So you should definitely address something that sounds “cool” to you.

Moving right along; our next step in the process of asking a question is deciding how realistic our expectations are. When I was a middle schooler, I would have thought that a cool school-based project might be determining how American Goldfinches assess predatory threats from terrestrial versus aerial predators. Hmmm, we have a bird feeder at school that is stocked with food and has plenty of Goldfinches every day. The problem is, how would I get an aerial and terrestrial predator to go along with my plans? Well mom might let me borrow Jules “the attack cat” for a day (but most likely not) and maybe I can lure in a Sharp-shinned or Cooper’s hawk with mom’s Parakeet (even more doubtful). In some situations, it will simply be impossible for you to adequetly address a “cool” question, given your resources. Yet, with a little ingenuity, you might just be able to pull it off. Okay, so I can’t get live predatory animals to work with, but I can get models (e.g. a stuffed animal cat and hawk) to act as surrogates. It might work and it might not, but any inferences that you make will be based upon using stuffed animals as a proxy for predators in your study. It might be worth a try.

We haven’t touched on what you will actually measure and how to analyze the data, but hopefully these elements will help you to be successful if you ever choose to come up with a research question.

Hi everyone,

I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Natural Resources at Cornell Univeristy and a member of a large interdisciplinary group of researchers at the Lab of Ornithology studying House Finch-Mycoplasma gallisepticum dynamics (the notorious finch eye disease). I have worked on this project for five years, and have really enjoyed having an opportunity to work with great people at the Lab of Ornithology, motivated and resourceful citizen scientists, and of course House Finches.

My work has essentially focused on trying to understand the factors that drive the spread and maintenance of disease within and between finch populations. As you may guess, this requires gaining an understanding of finch ecology and behavior. In the course of this study, colleagues and I have banded thousands of House Finches and enlisted the aid of citizen scientitsts to help us track the spread and intensity of Mycoplasma infection (characterized by various levels of conjunctivitis severity) across the US.