Dead Bird in Front Yard

[charmedbyekkie]

We started shifting some furniture into our new place today, but Cairo will only move in a week from now.

And we found this:

I don't know if someone poisoned the local birds (sometimes the government puts out poisoned food for the pigeons and mynas) or if this is a disease.

Worst case, and this is an illness - what can I do to protect Cairo? I'm asking that the landlord have it cleared before we officially move in. And Cairo definitely won't have free range outside of the house. But should I be taking any other precautions? Should I buy F10 and clean the front 'yard'?

 

[Laurasea]

Looks like a vulture? Easy for people to posion..
Since it's outside I'd use bleach and water and hose down.
Then I'd smudge some sage for the spiritual side.
Congratulations on new place must be exciting times. Plus you getting that huge enough to house an adult human cage/palace!

 

[Allee]

That’s a sad, unpleasant surprise to find at your new place. If it’s common practice for the government to put out poisoned food I think I would make some calls and find out so you know for sure. I would definitely give the outside of your place a thorough cleaning with a powerful water hose. I wonder if someone may have sprayed the lawn with insecticides?

 

[noodles123]

Any large windows nearby?
Hard to know what happened but...If he is bald like that naturally, I would be less concerned than if he has a disease that caused that to happen...Either way, I am always a bit nervous when I see dead birds nearby.

If you are worried, you could easily get a fresh bottle of bleach and some flip-flops, mix it with a bit of cold water (1:9 -1:32?) and dump that on the deck/high traffic walkways- as long as you are sure fumes won't get in where the bird is. I would wear gloves just because if it gets on your skin, the smell is going to come inside by default. I do know someone (non-bird related) who was told to bleach her yard by a vet, but I doubt your situation is extreme.


Fun fact- At a med training class, I was informed that bleach loses potency if it was mixed with hot water. It also loses potency within a few months of opening, and with 24 hours of being mixed with any water. https://www.scripps.edu/newsandviews/e_20060213/bleach.html


F10 SC is great for indoors/near bird, so I would get some for the future, just because I love it...
BUT, you have a massive advantage, as your bird isn't moving in for one week. I didn't see that originally.
Regardless of disease etc, deep clean while you can with whatever you want (within reason) as long as her mouth won't be coming into contact with the bleached surfaces and as long as you will be able to air things out so that there are no scents by the time your bird arrives. When I move, I am going to have to drive my bird to my parent's house and then return here to clean with bleach etc, just because it is impossible to do all that I want with her in the same air-space

 

[Scott]

What a sad welcome. Knowledge is power, I'd inquire as to local or governmental practices that may include poisoning. Might check with neighbors to see if this is common.

 

[ChristaNL]

If it happened near a window he probably just broke his neck....so no worries (it you pick up the bird it is usually quite obvious if something is broken). No ants or other insects nearby so it just happened...
(no nasty stuff leaking out of the dead bird)



Are you going to build some kind of aviary there?
(To keep Cairo in and the wildlife out.)


You can scrub for you own peace of mind of course, but there not that many (if any) pathogens that will survive on stone in a baking tropical sun...
(UV-desinfecting by mother nature)

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

No feathers on the head and the shape of the beak makes me think a vulture...but the size looks awful small to be a vulture. I guess the photo can be deceiving. I'd ask your neighbors too,and inquire with the proper authorities.


Jim

 

[charmedbyekkie]

It was a tiger/zebra dove unfortunately. The nearest window is 10ft away under an awning, so not sure if flying into the window might be the cause of death.

Typically poisonings are carried out quietly (and oftentimes unofficially) by just leaving poisoned food out in a public area. My other thought would be fogging (erm, heavy duty fumigation that actually looks like fog to kills mosquitos).

Insecticide might also be likely because the garden hose is actually right next to a small 5x5 patch of fertilised dirt (our new landlord wants to potentially have a herb garden). I'll talk to them about insecticide usage with Cairo's health as the main focus.

There was a small bird dropping near the carcass - I didn't go examine because I was worried about picking up a virus that could infect Cairo.

I'll definitely keep him indoors at the start though.

 

[SailBoat]

No feathers on the head and the shape of the beak makes me think a vulture...but the size looks awful small to be a vulture. I guess the photo can be deceiving. I'd ask your neighbors too,and inquire with the proper authorities.
Jim

Great point about inquiring with the proper local authorities!
Here in the upper mid-west of North America, our local authorities want to know about found Bird bodies. We have several very deadly Bird Killers that can transfer to other Birds. Bird Flu and West Nile as a couple of examples! Here, our local authorities will either request that you leave the bird for them to pick-up or to properly remove the body.
Be safe, ask!

 

[EllenD]

It's hard to tell what happened here, I don't know if you actually looked at the entire body to see if there was any trauma to it, like it may have been attacked by a cat, larger bird, or other predator, which is pretty common, or if you can see if he looks at all emaciated or skinny (which would be a sign of disease), but chances are that it's not something that is going to effect Cairo...First of all, not all diseases that effects Doves/Pigeons are going to effect Psittacines, so that's a good thing, and chances are that it was either attacked by a predator or it ate something poisonous, whether it was accidental or purposely put out to kill them...Either way, I would just do a thorough cleaning/disinfection of the inside of your new place with F10SC or Bleach/water, as well as the area around where the body of the bird was found, because chances are that whatever killed it is not in the immediate area, and if it has a disease, infection, or parasite that caused it, if you disinfect the area where the body was found then it should be just fine for Cairo to move-in afterwards. A lot of viral diseases and parasites cannot live unless their host is alive, so that's another reason that I wouldn't worry terribly...

Now if you see more dead birds suddenly laying around, then you might have a problem! But if it's just one Dove then I wouldn't worry too much about it.