The message below was copied from the Cornell website:
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/hofi/
Do you have House Finches or American Goldfinches at your feeders?
Then sign up for the House Finch Disease Survey!
The House Finch Disease Survey--
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/hofisignup/signup.html is an unprecedented ;
opportunity for you to help researchers track the spread of an infectious
disease in a wildlife population.
The survey is easy to do: participants record the visits of House Finches and
American Goldfinches at their feeders and the occurrence of diseased birds, and
then send their data to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. In doing so, they help
scientists document the occurrence and spread of mycoplasmal conjunctivitis in
the United States and Canada (view map showing the prevalence of the disease
since it was first observed--
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/hofi/spreaddisease.html).
Your observations are needed so that we may better understand this avian
disease.
