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  • Does water-bath cleaning affect the health of visiting birds? A study of parasite loads in house finches (Haemorhous mexicanus) in the Phoenix, Arizona, USA metropolitan area (2018)
  • McGraw, Kevin; Arizona State University
    Shaw, Allyson; Arizona State University
  • 2021-02-27
  • McGraw, K. and A. Shaw. 2021. Does water-bath cleaning affect the health of visiting birds? A study of parasite loads in house finches (Haemorhous mexicanus) in the Phoenix, Arizona, USA metropolitan area (2018) ver 1. Environmental Data Initiative. https://doi.org/DOI_PLACE_HOLDER (Accessed 2024-12-27).

  • There is evidence that urban animals have higher parasite and pathogen burdens than those from natural areas, but the mechanism behind this pattern is unclear. One possibility for yard-visiting birds is that they drink from bird baths that have not been regularly cleaned and thus they have elevate infection risks and rates by consuming unusually soiled water. We experimentally tested this idea in house finches (Haemorhous mexicanus) – a common backyard visitor in North America – by implementing a rotating bath-cleaning regime, where we either left baths uncleaned for 5 weeks or cleaned them daily with dilute bleach for 5 weeks, and did so at both an urban and rural study site. We found that coccidian endoparasitism decreased in urban birds when they drank from clean baths, but the same was not true for rural birds. These results reveal a habitat-specific effect of feeder cleaning on disease status in an abundant yard-visiting songbird.

  • Geographic Coordinates
    • N: 33.4202, S: 33.4202, E: -111.9332, W: -111.9332
    • N: 33.3506, S: 33.3506, E: -112.0759, W: -112.0759
  • knb-lter-cap.688.1  (Uploaded 2021-02-27)  
  • This data package is released to the "public domain" under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 "No Rights Reserved" (see: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). The consumer of these data ("Data User" herein) has an ethical obligation to cite it appropriately in any publication that results from its use. The Data User should realize that these data may be actively used by others for ongoing research and that coordination may be necessary to prevent duplicate publication. The Data User is urged to contact the authors of these data if any questions about methodology or results occur. Where appropriate, the Data User is encouraged to consider collaboration or coauthorship with the authors. The Data User should realize that misinterpretation of data may occur if used out of context of the original study. While substantial efforts are made to ensure the accuracy of data and associated documentation, complete accuracy of data sets cannot be guaranteed. All data are made available "as is". The Data User should be aware, however, that data are updated periodically and it is the responsibility of the Data User to check for new versions of the data. The data authors and the repository where these data were obtained shall not be liable for damages resulting from any use or misinterpretation of the data. Thank you.
  • DOI PLACE HOLDER
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