Thousands of wild birds have died recently in the Treasure Valley because of avian flu, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game announced Wednesday .
The sick and dead birds, namely geese, have been reported in the Lake Lowell, Parma, and Fort Boise areas, the department said, adding that Fish and Game staff are actively working to pick up carcasses of birds in areas with the largest number of dead waterfowl.
Avian influenza is carried primarily by waterfowl (geese and ducks) along their migratory paths from their summer habitat to their wintering grounds, Fish and Game said, noting that mortality events like the one occurring in Idaho are often widespread.
“Groups of dead light geese — which include blue, snow, Ross’s geese — have been discovered as far east as Indiana and Tennessee and as far south as Louisiana and Texas,” Fish and Game Migratory Game Bird Coordinator Jeff Knetter said. “While unfortunate, several thousand light geese dying in a mortality event does not present population level concerns; the number of birds impacted is a very small proportion of the overall population which exceeds a million birds.”