More than 11,000 blue tits, small songbirds, have suddenly perished or fallen ill in Germany.
Now German conservation group NABU is asking birdwatchers to refrain from refilling their bird feeders or water troughs in an effort to curb transmission of the new crop of illness between birds.
In other words, they’re encouraging social distancing for the blue tits.
Noted signs of illness including breathing problems, food avoidance, ungroomed plumage and fatigue or confusion — evidenced by their willingness to be approached by humans, when normally they would quickly fly away.
Laboratory tests on dead-bird specimens revealed a bacterial infection of Suttonella ornithocola, which was discovered in the UK in the 1990s and is known to cause pneumonia in tit species, though blue tits have been the tits most frequently observed with the illness. Scientists are awaiting further test results, which they hope will shed more light on the infection.
There are no reports of S. ornithocola threatening animals besides birds. However, the only other known species of the bacterium, Suttonella indologenes, is found only in human hosts. In rare cases, the human pathogen has caused endocarditis, an infection of the heart valves, and peritonitis, inflammation of the abdominal lining.
The blue tit is distinguished by its blue and yellow coloring and small size, just 4 to 5 inches long. A cousin to the North American chickadee, the blue tit population spans throughout Europe and Eastern Russia, and play an important role in woodland ecology by consuming insects, caterpillars, seeds and nuts.