Good news for Washington’s backyard bird watchers: the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has OK’d the return of bird feeders starting in April as reports of sick and dead bird have started to decline.
In January, the department advised residents in King, Kitsap, Skagit, Snohomish and Thurston counties to take down all feeders as a deadly outbreak of salmonellosis was spreading in the area’s songbirds, fueled by an dramatic increase in population of pine siskins from Canada.
The birds were spreading the easily transmissible bacterial disease through saliva and droppings in congregate settings like bird feeders and baths.
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