Finch louse fly

[spanna]

Was catching up some young birds today and found one of these little mongrol lookin things. Can fly, but only slowly, so I caught it for ID. Anybody have a clue as to what they are and how much of a problem they could be?

Fly-from-above.jpg

Fly-front-view.jpg

It did have both wings but the other came off just so it couldn't make a getaway. It was then frozen and took some shots with my macro lens. Probably only 4 or 5 mm in body length, wings a bit longer, and very very laterally flattened.

[Tintola]

Were they found on the birds? If so they are probably "Flatflies". And were they very flat? Very unusual to find them on finches if that's what your young birds were. Mostly found on larger birds Kookaburras, Tawny Frogmouths, Emus etc. They suck the blood of the birds.
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[spanna]

And were they very flat?

very very laterally flattened

unlike you to miss that T!! Yeah I did some research as to what they were but couldn't really find much on cause, impact or treatment...

[Myzomela]

Hi Spanna,
I agree with Tintola. They are likely to be flatflies or Hippoboscid flies.

They are suspected of potentially transmitting blood-borne parasites between birds but have not read anywhere where this has been proven for finches. Still, I'd get rid of them. They are obligate parasites and need to feed on the bird to survive. Hence they spend nearly all their time on the bird.
The best way of killing them is squeezing them between your fingernails- gross, I know- but swatting them is useless as their bodies are so flat.

Cheers

Myzo

[spanna]

Thanks myzomela.
Being external parasites, would moxidectin (or any other form of medication, maybe even fly spray?) have any effect on them?
Otherwise I'll be attempting to catch every bird and physically check them... Don't seem to have any negative effect on host birds, though I did read somewhere that they are potentially fatal to nestlings due to smaller size.
Cheers

[finchbreeder]

Don't know if they are the same as the flies that budgies occassionally get (from wild doves I am told) but if so spraying the wings with "swipe a fly" Pyrinthian based, works.
LML

[Mel7610]

Pyrethrin(natural) or permethrin (chemical)found in your normal tick and mite spray, base sprays should eradicate them. if not try your moxydectin.(I got some by the way thankyou !!!)

[biggerbills]

I used to occasionally find them in the stock loft of my racing pigeons. Generally they appeared towards the end of the breeding season (mid summer).
They were generally on the stock birds but sometimes would be on the young in the nest. They suck the blood and can make the young very weak.
We would treat each bird, the nest box, and the loft with commercial insect spray and generally didn't see any more till the following summer.