From Greg Marston with a reply from Perry,
I banded at home on Monday for a record
number of birds (55) processed in 12 hours of banding. Yes, I have to
admit 39 of these were Silvereyes, including 6 same day recoveries! At the
end of the current banding year, I am going to put all my Silvereyes to
good use and calculate their longevity.
There was one Silvereye I thought may
interest you and have attached some pics. There appeared to be a tick
attached to the nares with some blood evident on the upper mandible. More
interesting was a huge growth on the wing near the left wing carpal joint that
had some covert feathers growing or protruding from the growth. Everything
else about the bird was normal and being “preggers”, she was obviously
still attractive to her male suitors – in human terms! I removed the
presumed tick but could not do anything about the wing growth before
releasing her in otherwise good health.
Greg & Maxine Marston
Silvereyes -
little buggers will always pose new questions. Ticks on birds are not
often reported; perhaps they burrow out of sight under feathers? We have
come across them on birds' faces and legs but not very often.
The growth on the wing is something that we
have seen on a number of occasions. One bird with multiple dry warty
growths was sent to the State entomologist who determined that the
infection was "fowl pox". Another Silvereye had its entire eye
encased in a red, inflamed, warty growth. I euthanased a Silvereye that
had one foot engulfed by a similar growth. This one I sent to Max Bailey
who was a haematologist at RPH and their laboratory identified the growth
as a "non-differentiated squamous celled carcinoma". This was
published as a note in the WA Naturalist. There have been frequent reports
about growths on Silvereyes, many of then from New Zealand.
Perry
de Rebeira
