Expert: Roger Lederer - 10/26/2007

Question
I've seen two house finches at my feeders with what appear to be tumors.  On both of them, the ceres seems to be very affected.  On one, the beak looks very abnormal.  Hard to be certain from a distance, but it looks as if the lower beak has grown well beyond the upper.  He tends to take food from the side of his beak.  He also has a lump on one foot.  One has a lump over an eye.  All the eyes look clear, and it doesn't look like conjunctivitis, as I understand it.  They both seem to have good appetites and fly well.  Would you suspect avian pox?

Answer
Most likely House Finch disease, which is equivalent to the human conjuntivitis. Terrible disease and wreaks havoc on House Finches. Avian Pox is also possible as the symptoms overlap, but I can't diagnose over the computer of course. Conjuntivitis is much more common, though.