for those that collect stray feathers

Fly Patterns
1

the following is an excerpt from a web page.

Feathers can reflect disease in a bird. These feathers are from the same location on the same Peregrine Falcon - one was moulted out prior to contracting West Nile Virus, and the other was dropped shortly after the feather grew in as the bird was recovering from West Nile Virus.

Notice the split in the feather shaft and the malformed shaft near the tip.
Feathers courtesy of Ron Kearney.

The feather on the left was moulted normally prior to contracting West Nile Virus. The feather on the right was dropped shortly after growing in. The feather on the right is substantially shorter than the normal feather and the shaft is warped and twisted.
Feathers courtesy of Ron Kearney.

Another comparison of these two feathers.
Feathers courtesy of Ron Kearney.

so these are some signs of diseases among birds. if you find feathers with these odd charicteristics, DONT PICK THEM UP!!!

2

Excellent information. Thanks for posting. It certainly makes one want to be more cautious about what they pick up.

3

Not to mention IT IS ILEGAL to pick them up without a permit that only a very few can obtain.

fishbum

4

Good info, thanks. When we lived at the end of the high mountain road in Montana, we had a Peregrine Falcon living across from our house. Fantastic to see him work. Your word ‘recovered’, wonderful. :slight_smile:

5

around here it is legal to pick up feathers, but only certain kinds. basically, its only feathers of birds you can legally hunt that you can pick up.

6

My sister was picking up feathers from wild birds around the shoreline etc for me, and she came down with headaches, fever, body aches, skin rash & swollen lymph glands, she was quite sick for a few months. We never knew what it was from… until now!

Thank you for showing us the pictures - the feathers she picked up looked like the one’s in the pictures.

Jeanne

7

Geeze , Bird flu, west Nile disease, It is probably cheaper to buy feathers from a reputable source than get either one of these scary illnesses.

Thanks DDRRedneck500 good stuff that might possibly save someone on here a ton of grief.

For this I award you 1 point , at your own discretion feel free to now call yourself DDRRedneck501 . :slight_smile:

8

Thanks, i just recently started to collect feathers, but will no longer continue to do so, it wasnt saving me money, it was more for the novelty of tieing from stuff that i found.

9

If you had any sense, you’d sanitize it before touching it. Here, west nile killed nearly half the city’s crow population, so we don’t mess with found feathers.

10

Very, interesting AND informative report, DDR502! (I also, gave you another point, one up from Gnubee’s).
On the back edge of our property, there’s a mated pair of Bald Eagles that live year 'round and have, now, for about 7 years. We love to watch, each year, as they have their young, fish for them, and teach them whatever it is they’re taught.
The tree, where they nest, is a Douglas Fir, about 80 feet tall. Their nest, is just below the highest branches. We call their tree, the “Eagle’s Tree” of course, but also "The “Feather Tree”, because of all the eagle feathers that have fallen down through the branches over the years, many even, clear to the ground.
But, because at the time, they nested there the Eagles were still an endangered species, like all nests in our county, it’s a “registered nesting site”, and is checked on quite often by state bird biologists.
Linda and I, are not allowed, (even though it’s on our private property), to touch, handle, collect, use, sell, whathaveyou, ANY of the feathers, that fall to the ground.
Not, that we’d wish to, but the “boys and girls in the know”, have informed us it’s still a federal law, NOT to possess any feathers from our National Bird, for any reason.
We’re allowed, oddly, to “feed them, natural game” if want to, (I often, toss the occasional Bass, Crappie, or Bluegill, on the feeding perch I built for them), but still, we can’t handle the feathers if/when, they fall from the tree!?!

11

thanks gnu bee and fly binder:D i may just change my name…

im doing somemore google searches so heres a few more signs of diseases on feathers that you DO NOT WANT to pick up.

this next feather is damaged from lice.
if you pick up lice infested feathers, YOU could catch lice, and you could get a bad infestation in youre tying supplies.

feathers with this appearence are like so usually as a result of viral infections. with this feather and all those shown previously, NO AMOUNT OF WASHING/FREEZING CAN ELIMINATE THE RISK. however if you find pristine, clean feathers they still may have diseases and it is highly recommended to wash/freeze/treat them to ensure that no diseases are spread.


feathers with these charicteristics are usually as a result of malnutrition or mineral deficieny. these are USUALLY fine to pick up and use. however, be careful because it looks very similar to the signs of west nile virus and could easily be mistaken. so it might be wise to steer clear of these feathers as well.

12

Let’s not over exagerate the risk here. There is exactly a 0% chance of catching West Nile Virus from an infected bird’s feathers. The only way to contract West Nile Virus is to be bitten by a mosquito that has recently dined on a blood meal from an infected bird. Even if bitten by such a mosquito, the chances of becoming ill are rare and are typically limited to the very old and those with compromised immune systems.

The only way to contract Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) is to come in contact with the mucous secretions or fecal matter of a live bird that is infected. The influenza virus can only live outside the host for a matter of hours, at best, so handling shed feathers should present almost no risk.

Now getting bird mites, that’s a real possibility… nasty disgusting little critters…

mAngler