Bird flu: what to do in your garden and local patch

Part 2 of Bird Flu and your Local Birds: A short, practical series for people who love the birds around them

• Read Part 1 – What does H5 bird flu mean for your local birds?
• Read Part 3 – The long game: building healthy bird populations

H5 can feel like a tidal wave you can do nothing about. But when it comes to your own backyard and local patch, there’s a short list of practical things that make a real difference right now – mostly small habits, many of which you’re probably doing already.

This piece covers two of them: not making life easy for the virus and knowing exactly what to do if you come across a sick or dead bird.

Firstly, don’t feed your garden bird friends. They don’t need it, and it might be risking them unnecessarily.

Feeding stations bring problems of their own, from poor nutrition to the spread of diseases like salmonella that thrive where birds poop and food is left out and fouled. A backyard outbreak is unlikely, but since feeding does no real good for the birds, there’s little reason to take even a small risk.

Better to feed them naturally: plant a garden they can forage in. Ideally, a diversity of locally-native plants, especially shrubs, from your local community nursery that feed birds naturally year-round.

Feeding matters even more around water: please stop feeding the ducks at the local pond or park. That gathers waterbirds most at risk from H5, and bread is poor food that lowers their health, reducing their ability to fight off disease.

The good news is that your birdbath can stay. As we head into another hot summer, it’s an important feature in your local landscape, and the risk it carries is small and easily managed.

There’s no documented case of a garden birdbath transmitting bird flu. The studies around transferring through water are about cold natural waterbodies where waterbirds gather, a world away from a shallow bath you refresh every day or two. Water is essential- not just for drinking but also for feather health and staying flight ready.

Supplementary feeding, on the other hand, is not essential for birds, which is the real difference between the two. That said, any shared water can spread illness if it’s left dirty, so keeping it clean is good practice, with or without H5.

Keeping it clean is simple. Refresh the water daily if you can and give the bath a thorough clean once a week. For that weekly clean, pop on some gloves and go gently: skip the high-pressure hose and any hard scrubbing, which can flick particles up into the air. Tip out the old water and rinse away loose dirt and droppings with hot water, and lift any grime with a soft brush. Then disinfect with a bleach solution of one cup of household bleach to four litres of water, leave it for a couple of minutes, and rinse thoroughly so no residue is left behind (which keeps other visitors like frogs safe too). Before refilling, let it dry in the sun afterwards for extra protection.

A couple of extra tips: offering water in a few spots at different depths beats one big bath, as long as you can keep them all clean. And you can “cycle” your baths so if you can’t clean one straight away, tip it out, set it aside, and put a fresh one out in its place.

You don’t need to stock up on F10 or other strong disinfectants for your bird bath either. They’re really made for veterinary settings. For cleaning your bird bath, the bleach solution is just as effective against this virus and gentler on the wildlife sharing your garden.

If H5 is detected in your local area, step up the cleaning or take the bath down for a while until things settle.

Remember to always wash your hands after gardening or handling anything you’ve seen birds using. It’s worth keeping an eye on your regular visitors, too. You’ll notice quickly if something isn’t right, like a bird looking unwell or several turning up dead. People who know their local patch are often the first to notice something’s wrong.

The same goes when you’re out, especially at a local park, wetland or beach, where you’re more likely to come across the higher-risk waterbirds. If you find a sick or dead bird, wherever it is, the thing to remember is avoid, record, report.

• Avoid touching it and keep children and pets well away.
• Record what you’re looking at, roughly how many birds and what species if you can tell, with a photo if you can take one safely.
• Then report it to the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline on 1800 675 888. Your report helps the authorities see where the virus is moving, and a cluster of birds down in one place is worth calling in quickly.

And finally, if a wetland or beach near you is signposted or closed during an outbreak, take it seriously, since those measures only work when people follow them.

Useful links 

• BirdLife “Avoid, Record, Report”
• DCCEEW, H5 and native species (reporting guidance)
• Emergency Animal Disease Hotline: 1800 675 888