Recently on
a visit to Honeymoon Bay on the north shore of Jervis Bay NSW, the various mirror surfaces
of our vehicle were vigorously attacked by a White-browed Scrubwren in the
picnic area while we enjoyed an afternoon cuppa. I have plenty of White-browed
Scrubwren photos however, the bird was so persistent I eventually got the
camera out and captured a few photos.
Please click on photos to enlarge.
The Scrubwren’s reflection in the side mirrors - just one of many mirror surfaces the bird attacked on the vehicle. |
The windows were another location where the Scrubwren saw an “intruder” which was pecked with determination. |
It probably seemed to the Scrubwren that everywhere it looked there was an intruder. |
Even the side mirror surround was silver and reflective and though it took quite an effort to reach, the bird still attacked with serious intent to see the intruder off. |
It was not until I was processing the photos on the laptop that I noticed the Scrubwren had some blister like growths on its legs. Take a close look at the bird’s legs in the next photo. There are several warty or blister like growths on both legs, though the left leg seems to have more.
I had no
idea what afflicted this Scrubwren and had never seen anything like it before.
We rarely
see sick and diseased wild birds in the bush. Dead beach washed sea birds are
common enough and the remains of larger birds such as pelicans and swans for
example are sometimes found. However, in the bush, apart perhaps from a small
pile of feathers, the remains of a predator’s meal, we rarely see dead, injured
or diseased and sick birds. I guess this is because life in the wild is a hard
and unforgiving existence and any birds that are not fully healthy and fit will
soon be taken by a predator. That said, the reality is that wild birds are
subject to various diseases with some proving fatal or in some cases birds may
be able to live with the disease or eventually recover from it.
In a quest
to try and discover the cause of the blisters on this Scrubwren , and after a suggestion
from a vet friend that it might be a type of pox and a Google search for “pox
in wild birds”, I eventually arrived at a facts sheet on the Wildlife Health
Australia (WHA) web site. This in turn led me to email a report and some photos
to WHA. Here is the reply I received:
Dear John,
Thank you for your email and sending the excellent images of this
White-browed Scubwren. It is always difficult to determine the exact nature of
raised lumps like this on birds. A pox lesion is certainly high on the list of
possibilities but there are likely several possibilities and it can be
difficult to determine the exact cause based just on an image. Thank you for
providing the exact location and date of your sighting as well as noting that
you have not observed any other birds with similar lumps. This is very useful
information and we can use this to determine if there is an unusual increase in
this type of sighting. To date, WHA hasn’t received any reports of similar
sightings in birds from this region. I will pass this report onto our key
points of contact for wildlife health in NSW (https://www.wildlifehealthaustralia.com.au/AboutUs/ContactDetails.aspx )
so they are aware of this report and link this to any other reports they may
have received directly.
Hopefully this little bird’s lump resolves with time and returns to full
beauty. If the lumps are caused by a poxvirus, these infections are generally
self-limiting with uncomplicated lesions healing in three to four weeks. If the
bird is observed to be unwell in future, then information about who to call in
NSW can be found here: licensed rehabilitation group or
call OEH. [Note: Only people authorised under
an OEH wildlife licence may take a native animal into care.]
All the very best and thank you so much for the report and image.
Tiggy
While I did
not find a definite diagnosis for the Scrubwren’s lumps I did learn in the
process that as birders we are in a unique position because we are often in the
field making detailed observations of wild birds so we can play an important
role in reporting any sick, infected, diseased or dead birds we find.
I encourage
interested birders to look at the WHA web site and record it for future reference:
Please note
each State or Territory has a WHA Coordinator who should be our first point of
contact when reporting wildlife disease events.
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