FAIRBANKS -- About 10 boreal owls have been found dead in the Fairbanks area this month.

The Alaska Bird Observatory and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will send the dead owls to a lab in Wisconsin to see if tests can determine how the owls died.

Officials say one possibility is that owls ate redpolls infected with salmonella or E. coli. There have been several reports of ill or dead redpolls at feeders.

Senior observatory biologist Susan Sharbaugh says some dead redpolls also were sent to the Wisconsin lab.