White fluff on sparrow’s legs

Hi Lynne....sorry a dont have much advice for you other than what's available in the link below and maybe worth contacting the BTO to see if it's the same thing that affects chaffinches and bramblings

www.bto.org/.../warts

Let us know what they say should you wish to contact them ;-)

They usually always do Lynne..May take a couple of days though ;-)

Hi
For all of you who are interested, please see below the informative reply I had from BTO via The Zoological Society.
Kind Regards
Lynne


Dear Lynne,

Many thanks for taking the time to report to Garden Wildlife Health, helping us to learn more about the disease conditions affecting British wildlife.

Unfortunately, we are unable to reach a firm diagnosis without performing an examination on the bird, which I believe to be a dunnock, which you are with growths on the legs. However, from what you describe and what is visible on the pictures you kindly attached, this is very likely caused by a Cnemidocoptes sp. mite infestation.
Whilst chaffinches are by far the most common species affected by such leg abnormalities (and to a lesser extent other finch species as well), which in finches are generally associated with either papillomavirus or Cnemidocoptes sp. mite infestation (or a combination of the two), we have recently found these mites also affecting legs of dunnocks.

Affected birds usually remain bright and active, but severely affected animals may experience difficulties standing, perching etc. (particularly if they have lost digits/parts of the limb as a result of the lesions), and/or become predisposed to predation or entanglement. Unfortunately, treatment of wild animals in your garden is not recommended for various reasons (invertedly also treating healthy animals, being unable to ensure right dosage, etc). Please find attached our factsheet in this condition which provides further information on such leg lesions.

In case you are interested in learning more, please visit the Garden Wildlife page on our website where you will find our library of disease factsheets, which contains lots of useful information, particularly regarding disease control measures that you can implement in your garden in order to protect other birds from infection.

If you would like to read more about best practice advice on feeding garden birds, please have a look at our feeding guidelines: www.gardenwildlifehealth.org/.../Feeding-Garden-Birds-Best-Practice-Guidance.pdf

It is important to be aware that there are several possible causes of ill health and death in garden wildlife, such as salmonellosis, which, whilst the risks are low, have the potential to cause ill health in humans and pets, so we always recommend following good hygiene precautions, such as not handling sick and dead wildlife directly and washing your hands thoroughly after handling wildlife/carcasses.

Once again thank you very much for your report and I hope you find this information helpful. If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Kind regards,
Katharina


Katharina Seilern-Moy
MagMedVet, PhD, MRCVS
Wildlife Veterinarian | Postdoctoral Researcher
Institute of Zoology | Zoological Society of London
Garden Wildlife Health Tel: +44- 20-7449-6685
Follow us on twitter @wildlife_health and @ZSLScience
www.gardenwildlifehealth.org
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Thanks for that Lynne....oh it is indeed a wee Dunnock...a was too busy staring at its legs at the time...Such a horrible condition it has sadly but not your fault.
Thanks for sharing your reply with us ;-)