(WHDH) — Songbirds across the United States have been getting sick and dying from a mysterious illness for the last few months, officials said.
The United States Geological Survey says it first began receiving reports in late May from wildlife managers in Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky who were noticing an uptick in birds that were dying from an unknown infection.
Symptoms include eye swelling and crusty discharge, as well as neurological sign, the USGS noted.
More recently, there have been additional bird death reports out of Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana.
The sickness is mainly impacting fledgling common grackles, blue jays, European starlings, and American robins.
“No definitive cause(s) of illness or death have been determined at this time,” USGS officials said in a news release.
Natural resource management agencies in the affected areas are continuing to work with diagnostic laboratories to investigate the sickness.
Residents in the impacted areas are being asked to remove bird feeders from their yards because birds congregating at feeders and baths can transmit diseases to one another.
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