YORK, Pa. — Dennis Kunkle has two bird feeders that he fills up every week or so.
A few days ago, he noticed that one of the birds was acting out of the ordinary.
“I had observed a finch who didn’t fly away when I came near the feeder," said Kunkle.
When he approached it, he saw that the bird’s eyes were enlarged and not looking right.
“About a week later I found a dead finch in my yard. Another week another dead finch out on the front of my house," said Kunkle.
The Raven Ridge Wildlife Center was first alerted to this mysterious disease in May.
“We’re not even quite sure where it came from, how it started. There’s a lot of speculation that it’s from the cicadas, maybe from some sort of spray, agricultural spray," said Tracie Young, the Director at Raven Ridge Wildlife Center.
The disease is causing songbirds to have vision related symptoms.
“Their heads are going. They can’t stand. It’s kind of almost a drunk effect. The eyes are. They look like they’re kind of white glossed over," said Young.
Experts say that until they know exactly what is going on, they are asking people to take extra precautions, especially if you have a bird feeders in your home.
“Take down your bird feeder. Dump that bird feed out, clean the feeders with like a 10% bleach solution and let them out in the sun to dry. same thing with the bird baths," said Young.
Dennis says that watching the songbirds die is upsetting as a bird watcher and bird feeder.
He hopes that he will soon be able to hang up his feeder again.
“Well..It’s a sign of the times we live in," said Kunkle.