This house finch visited my feeders. Something was wrong with one of its eyes. Do you know what the problem was?

Kenn and Kimberly: This looks like a bacterial infection called conjunctivitis. It’s often known as “house finch eye disease,” but other finches suffer from it, too. Birds with conjunctivitis have swollen, crusty eyes, impairing their vision so that it’s hard for them to find food and escape predators. The infection doesn’t affect humans but can be contagious to other birds, so if the fliers at your feeders show symptoms, it’s best to take the feeders down for a few days and clean them thoroughly. (Because the bird in your photo seems to have this condition in only one eye, it’s possible that something else might be the cause.)