Preliminary Comparison of Inland Michigan Fish Assemblages on Artificial Reef and Natural Habitats in 2024 Fall Sampling

Morgan Mark^1,*, Tyler Christensen¹, and Sean Graesser¹

¹Wild Bird Research Group, Titusville, NJ 08560. *Corresponding author.

Northeastern Naturalist, Volume 33, Issue 2 (2026): N33–N36

First published early online: 24 May 2026

Abstract
On 20 July 2025, we captured a juvenile Dumetella carolinensis (Gray Catbird) of undetermined sex with a severe bill deformity at Fiddler’s Creek Preserve (FCP) in Titusville, NJ—the first recorded bill deformity at FCP in 14 years of banding. The maxilla was curved laterally to the right; the maxilla and mandible did not meet past the nares, leaving the tongue exposed and dry; and the loral skin on the left side of the face was reddened and featherless. Although we did not determine what caused this catbird’s deformity, the similarity to observed cases of avian keratin disorder (poecivirus) reinforces the importance of documenting bill abnormalities to track the possible distribution of the disease.

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