H5N1 bird flu — have been found along the shores of Lake Michigan in the Chicago area, prompting warnings from area health officials. The Chicago Bird Collision Monitors (CBCM), a volunteer conservation project dedicated to the protection of migratory birds,

A conservation group in Chicago says hundreds of red-breasted mergansers, a species of diving duck that typically winters in the Great Lakes region, have been found sick or dead of suspected avian influenza — H5N1 bird flu — in the area over recent days.

Roughly 200-300 ducks have been found dead in Chicago and the northern suburbs around Lake Michigan in recent days, according to a new report from local news outlet NBC5. The red-breasted mergansers have died of suspected bird flu,