Saturday, May 31

Welcome to Your Daily Dot where Dot will share tips, advice, and stories on how we can make our world better.

Dot has recently become obsessed with the free Merlin ID app, which helps me identify which bird species I’m seeing or hearing. I recently listened to 14 birds on my porch in the city — everything from a red-bellied woodpecker to a brown-headed cowbird to a chipping sparrow to … to … Far better to scroll bird species than social media, in Dot’s estimation. Which brings me to today's question and answer, pulled from Bluedot’s archives. Who knew a question about house finches would reveal a story of intrigue and crime and Hollywood pseudonyms? Read on. 

Dear Dot,

I thought the House Finches were wiped out a number of years ago by a disease that made them blind. Have they made a comeback? 

—Marie, Brooklyn, NY

Dear Marie,

You write to me from Brooklyn, having seen, no doubt, Bluedot’s Brooklyn Bird Watch featuring those red-headed charmers, House Finches. 

These perky peepers are indeed prone to Mycoplasmal conjunctivitis, or House Finch Eye Disease, confirms Pat Leonard, who works in media relations at the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology. Finches with the disease show red, swollen, runny, or crusty eyes. And, as you suspected, Marie, in extreme cases, the bird’s eyes swell shut and they become blind.

I will pause here for a moment while we all absorb the tragedy of these birds being unable to see and, therefore, perform any of the functions necessary for survival. I recall the words of poet Mary Oliver, appropriate to this particular anguish: “… it is a serious thing/just to be alive/on this fresh morning/in the broken world.” Her subject matter was Goldfinches, who also suffer from this debilitating disease.

What does any of this have to do with illicit trade, with Hollywood stage names? Keep reading.

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