Flu causing mass wild bird mortalities
Excerpted from EcoRI News
PROVIDENCE — This time of year isn’t supposed to be busy for Sheida Soleimani, the powerhouse artist, professor, and animal rehabilitator.
It’s not baby bird season, Soleimani explained, the time of year when worried good Samaritans swamp her clinic, Congress of the Birds, with calls about potentially failing fledglings.
But that rush is a few months away. Winter is a relatively quiet season, and Soleimani said she usually gets one or two calls on an average day. But this year, her phone is buzzing 15 to 20 times daily….
Most of the calls are about cases of bird flu, Soleimani told ecoRI News, or at least about birds who appear to be infected with the disease that has killed millions of animals around the country, including a flock in southern Rhode Island last month.
“What we are seeing is mass mortalities,” Soleimani said. “They’re falling out of the sky dying.”