Greenfinch fledgling fatalities

[anthony273]

Help please on huge fledgling greenfinch disasters around the feeders. Peanuts could be to blame?, but no change in feeding arrangements over previous years. North east of Scotland, so maybe early hatchings in inclement weather. All advice appreciated urgently!

[dmclean2]

Hi Anthony and welcome to WAB,
Sorry to hear of the fatalities in your area of fledgeling greenfinches, I take my peanut feeders down about now to try and stop parent birds feeding said peanuts to the baby birds, it may not be anything to do with that, it's possibly like you say , the weather but probably not that , if you can bag one of the dead baby birds , and take it to your local wildlife trust, most have contact with a biological research centre who would examine for cause of death , take note of how many dead birds there is and whether they are adults or young,Its possible it could be a virous or something ,
Keep us posted ,
Duncan

[ron1863]

Hi and a warm welcome Anthony. Sorry to hear about the birds.

[LoveT]

Hi Anthony - welcome to WAB.

Such a shame to lose youngsters like that .

I'm no expert, but like the others I don't feed peanuts this time of year. I think Greenfinches are mainly seed eaters, but will have a go at other things - especially babies, who I imagine are curious like other babies are. Peanuts get stuck in little throats, hence the general advice not to feed peanuts during the breeding season.

The only other thing that came to mind for me was the inclement weather bit. You don't say how you put out the peanuts, but if you are going to do that you need to replace them frequently, because if they get damp and aren't replaced, they can go mouldy, and I'm not sure if I'm absolutely 100% right on this, but this is toxic to birds, although I don't know how quickly it might kill them .

I hope that might help you.

Thea

[deer boy]

Welcome to WAB Anthony keep us up to date regarding the birds

[anthony273]

Thank you so much to all respondents. Well we collected 12 corpses (greenfinches only) yesterday and it was pretty grim. The whole peanuts we have out are in small-mesh feeders (for selfish reasons if nothing else - otherwise we should need to buy a peanut farm). There is a feeder stuck on the kitchen window (which has a roof) in which we put magimixed peanuts, This has all been in place since ever and a day with no previous problems.
So, yesterday we pressure washed all the feeders and table and put out a selection of seeds and fat balls, just leaving the whole peanuts which can't be removed whole. All species now seem to have gone off in a huff; haven't seen a greenfinch all day, just the odd chaffinch and bluetit.
We felt the throats of the dead birds but couldn't detect any obstruction.
Watch this space, but keep fingers crossed meantime. Thanks again everybody.