PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 16, 2021
Officials in Maine are monitoring the spread of a mysterious disease that has caused blindness and death in songbirds throughout the mid-Atlantic states and Ohio Valley in recent months. But Maine biologists are not going as far as officials in Connecticut and Massachusetts, who have asked the public to take in feeders and bird baths. As of Friday, the disease has not been found in birds north of Pennsylvania, said Adrienne Leppold, songbird biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Leppold said the illness is not a cause for concern in Maine at this time. “To be honest, I find the amount of outdoor cats and window strikes way more alarming for birds and bird populations than this disease,” Leppold said.