It isn’t just humans that experience pandemics; wild birds deal with the threat, too.

Although we don’t hear about it much anymore, the West Nile virus remains within our local bird populations. Fortunately, the worst of the problem has long-past.

It was in Queens, N.Y., 1999, when the unusual deaths of large numbers of birds prompted analytical testing that revealed the arrival of the West Nile virus in America. The exact strain of the virus was traced to a dead goose from Israel. Somehow a few mosquitoes found their way onto an airplane or cargo ship and managed to survive long enough to infect the United States' avian population. A virus, native to Uganda, was now free to spread across the North American continent, and it did just that at lightning speed.

Very quickly the corvid population (crows, jays) began dropping, and dead birds were being collected everywhere. The hardest hit was the American crow, which lost hundreds of thousands between 1999 and 2006. According to Connecticut West Nile experts, 16,000 crows died between 1999 and 2006. In other parts of the Northeast, the statistics were similar, with huge mortality rates experienced shortly after the arrival of the first mosquitoes in 1999.

The virus had been isolated in 100 different birds including the crow, blue jay, tufted titmouse, robin, house wren, chickadee, and eastern bluebird. In Maryland, where there was more counting, the tufted titmouse had declined by 30 percent and the chickadee plummeted 68 percent. Though all of the attention in Connecticut was on the crow, the much-esteemed American robin was predicted to suffer huge losses.

Fortunately, they were wrong, and to my knowledge, robins have stabilized. Crows are susceptible to the infection because they feed on carrion containing the virus. Robins, unlike crows, are able to live with the virus and act as “super amplifiers” or hosts.

It is worth noting the similarity of avian disease spread and human pandemic spread. Although some research refutes this claim, it seems the communal crow’s high mortality rate verses that of other more solitary species exemplifies the effectiveness of social distancing. Interestingly, many bird species innately practice social distancing.

You’ll notice chickadees approaching your suet one at a time, swallows on a utility line evenly spaced, and dark eyed juncos distanced beneath the feeder. Birds do this for other reasons, such as to observe pecking orders, but further research may reveal disease prevention fits into the equation.

Each of us can help birds keep a distance by spacing feeders apart, and not concentrating suet, thistle, and sunflower seed feeders together. In those conditions, diseases are also spread beneath the feeder, when spilled seed mixes with droppings or becomes moldy. There are five diseases commonly associated with crowded, dirty feeding areas, and though none are likely to result in widespread illness, birders definitely want to work toward prevention. Salmonellosis, trichomaniasis, aspergilosis, mycoplasmosis and avian pox are all diseases that birds can get at feeders.

Much of the data collecting on West Nile in birds ceased in 2006 when it was realized mosquito testing was more effective. But the study of pandemics or disease in wildlife can help advance research for humans because there is much that we can do when it comes to curtailing the spread of disease. Pandemics affect us all whether human or not: we are a part of the global ecosystem — all living organisms — and we are on this spaceship earth together.

Robert Tougias is a Colchester-based birder. His new book, "Birder on Berry Lane," is now available. You can email him questions at roberts90gtias@yahoo.com.