If you’re into birding or just enjoy watching the action at your
bird feeders, some scientists have a request: look for ticks.
If you see a bird with a fat tick stuck to its face, you may be
able to help in a research project. What the scientists want you
to do is send them the ticks.
Really.
Catching a bird to remove the ticks won’t be as hard to do as
you’re imagining. It may be as simple as picking it up off the
ground.
“There’s a tick species that infests only birds, attaching around
the head and neck and producing paralysis,” said Nancy Hinkle, a
University of Georgia Cooperative Extension entomologist.
Tick spit
She’s helping collect specimens of this tick (Ixodes
brunneus) for Auburn University entomologist Gary Mullen’s
research. She needs living ticks, because the study is of the
female ticks’ saliva.
A component of the bird tick’s saliva causes paralysis in birds,
Hinkle said. It first affects the wings and legs, preventing
birds from walking and flying. It progresses until the bird
becomes unable to breathe, and it dies.
Bird ticks are even harder to study than you might imagine.
“These ticks are found only in the winter and in three-year
cycles,” Hinkle said. “Winter 2005-2006 is a year we expected to
find them. However, reports have been low so far. And the season
typically ends by late March.”
That’s where you come in.
Help
Over the next few weeks, Hinkle needs your help if you see these
ticks on birds at feeders or find dead or dying, tick-infested
birds.
If you find a bird in early stages of paralysis, you may be able
to save it. If you remove the ticks before the bird develops
breathing problems, it may recover and be fine.
If you try to rescue the bird, wrap it in a towel to keep it from
struggling. Pick the ticks off carefully. Look under the feathers
to be sure you get them all. Then place the bird in a large paper
bag or box for a few hours. You wouldn’t want a predator to catch
it before it’s able to fly again.
“We’d like to have live tick specimens,” Hinkle said. “So if you
remove the ticks, place them in a bottle with a moistened (but
not wet) tissue.”
The whole thing
If the bird’s dead, just place the carcass in a plastic bag and
seal it with a twist tie. Take the ticks or birds, or both, to
the county UGA Extension office (1-800-ASK-UGA1). Or send them to
Ticks, Department of Entomology, 413 Biological Sciences
Building, University of Georgia, Athens GA 30602-2603.
Include a note with the date the bird was found, the type of bird
and, if you don’t mind getting a follow-up call, your phone
number. If you have a question, call UGA entomology lab manager
Sarah Bione at (706) 542-9033.
In larval and nymph stages, at least eight tick species feed on
birds in Georgia, said Lance Durden, an assistant professor of
biology at Georgia Southern University. Several of those may feed
on humans, too.
Easy picking
“Actually, we haven’t collected many Ixodes brunneus from
birds in our studies,” said Durden, who has studied ticks in
Georgia for two decades. “Most of the ticks we remove from wild
birds in Georgia are larvae (mostly) or nymphs of Ixodes
scapularis and Amblyomma americanum.”
Birds with attached bird ticks (Ixodes brunneus) are often
easy to spot, Durden said. They tend to stumble or fall off the
feeders.
“We haven’t looked at ticks on birds in garden and yard
settings,” he said. “But it could be that these kinds of habitats
are better suited for I. brunneus.”
To learn more about bird ticks and rescuing infested birds, see
the Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History Web site (www.hiltonpond.org/ThisWeek060115.html).
