34 replies to this topic

[BudgieBuddy]

found this bird today on a busy street all tired, and it let me take her/him home
is it a
female Common Yellowthroat?

after like 20 minutes, seemed to gain strength and open it's eyes
and say, where am i? then flew to sink and got water, wasn't scare
of me when i approached it at the sink, and then went to sit down
while it was at the sink, then the bird flew at the window thinking
it wasn't glass. banged and fell down. stunned the bird
and i decided to put the bird in a air vented box with some millet and water
while i had to go to work now for 6 hrs, hope the bird is ok, an gains strength

1) is the bird ok being in the box for the 6 hrs?
2) when should i release it, i was thinking over night it stays in the box, in the morning i bring it outside

[Janeybug]

The bird can rest in the box for an hour and then put the box outside in a safe place where cats or other predators cannot get to it and let it fly off on it's own.

[fisherman1313]

Warblers don't eat millet, they need insects. But I agree with Janeybug, you should not leave it in a box for six hours. Birds this small do not take long to starve. You should put it outside and let it leave of its own accord. If it does not leave within a few minutes of being placed outside you should find a rehabber in your area. Check out this pos for more info on what to do with an injured bird; http://www.whatbird....ung-bird-found/

[BarnSwallow]

They are migrating right now, so it may already be low on fat reserves - it will starve quite quickly if it is.

[BudgieBuddy]

I owned budgies for 4 years, so I know a little bit about caring for birds.

I was curious to know about this statement:

"Handle an unconscious bird as little as possible. If the bird regains consciousness while you are holding it, it will lose all fear of humans"

[JimBob]

It means exactly what it says.

[BarnSwallow]

Owning budgies is nothing like caring for a wild bird. As it was mentioned, this bird will never eat seeds- it will die before it eatsany of the millet. That bill is nothing like a seed-eater's, such as a budgie. I would also think you would never let a budgie fly free in a room with windows. Find a rehabber who knows what they're doing, if you can't release this bird immediately.

[psweet]

I have a hard time believing that bit about the birds losing all fear of humans. I've handled hundreds of wild birds, including birds that we'd captured for several years running, and I've never seen it happen.

[GreatHorn]

I was curious to know about this statement:

"Handle an unconscious bird as little as possible. If the bird regains consciousness while you are holding it, it will lose all fear of humans"

Agree with BarnSwallow's last post, for starters. Also, that's a good point! I wonder how true that statement is. I've held my budgie tons of times before and he is still deathly scared of me

[BudgieBuddy]

(thanks for the comments/suggestions)

Heading home now, i believe the small millet and water will be fine for the bird and the rest.
When I get home, I will open the door, then open the box, and see if the bird takes flight.
It will be night time when I do it, 10pm

I also found this:

A young soft-billed bird, such as a warbler or catbird, may be given grated carrots, chopped hard-boiled eggs, cottage cheese, fresh fruit, or custard. A young hard-billed bird, such as a sparrow or finch, may be given the same food or a mixture of dry baby cereal and the yolk of a hard-boiled egg moistened with milk. Rape (a plant that's a member of the mustard family), millet, and sunflower seeds should be added to this diet when the hard-billed bird becomes well developed.
An orphaned songbird needs to be fed every 20 minutes during daylight hours for several weeks. The food should be placed deep in its throat.

http://www.enotes.co...bird-eat-286253

[fisherman1313]

Common Yellowthroats are insectivores, the bird will completely ignore the millet. Your quote deals with hand feeding a baby bird, an adult, unless it has been acclimated to this diet prevoiously, will ignore these foods as well. I hope the bird survived its day in the box with no food. If the bird is still alive, you might as well wait until morning to release it. It won't be able to find any food in the dark and will probably die during the night anyway.

[BarnSwallow]

This is not a sparrow or a finch!!!! It's a warbler!! A very stressed warbler. Why on earth do you think it will eat seeds??? That bill is not designed to eat seeds at all!! The only thing it might eat is suet, but I doubt it would, stressed and in captivity. Doesn't really matter now though. Probably too late. There's a reason that only licensed rehabbers are allowed to keep wild birds.

[BudgieBuddy]

You guys are too negative.

The bird survived fine with water and crushed up millet seeds in the box.
I actually took it out this morning and it was a lot healthier.
It drank some water, then I decided it was fine and opened the window
and it hung out with me by the window for a few minutes then flew away gracefully
to a tree across the street.

The bird was a victim of slamming into a hi rise building and probably falling.
i give the bird credit. It survived it, and gained strength, and then flew off.

so write your own twisted ending to this story, my ending was reality.

[creeker]

I owned budgies for 4 years, so I know a little bit about caring for birds.

I was curious to know about this statement:

"Handle an unconscious bird as little as possible. If the bird regains consciousness while you are holding it, it will lose all fear of humans"

That is from my personal experience in rehabbing raptors and some other birds. There is a technique that falconers use as well called waking, where you trap a wild hawk, then keep it awake (sometimes a few days) until it falls asleep when you're holding it. When it wakes up in your arms, it is no longer afraid of you. I found out the hard way when rehabbing owls that had been hit by cars and knocked unconscious. It is important not to be handling them. A wild bird that doesn't fear humans is a dead bird.

[creeker]

Agree with BarnSwallow's last post, for starters. Also, that's a good point! I wonder how true that statement is. I've held my budgie tons of times before and he is still deathly scared of me

You can do the waking method on your budgie. I've used it on parrots a bunch of times. You have to be able to stay up, though. It's not just holding a wide awake bird. You don't need to be holding it before it falls asleep. Some falconers I knew used a perch that rotated every few minutes. The method may sound kind of cruel, but I was able to hand tame many parrots that became good family pets, that would have otherwise been banished to a cage and ignored.

[creeker]

I have a hard time believing that bit about the birds losing all fear of humans. I've handled hundreds of wild birds, including birds that we'd captured for several years running, and I've never seen it happen.

Were any of them unconscious when you were first holding them? My experience was limited to owls, hawks, falcons, and parrots. I assume it translates to other species as well.

[psweet]

Granted, none of them were unconscious -- but I just can't imagine a mechanism that would produce this effect.

[creeker]

Granted, none of them were unconscious -- but I just can't imagine a mechanism that would produce this effect.

Maybe google "waking in falconry?" It might clear it up a little for you P. It's a little different than getting knocked unconscious, but the closest thing I found that explained the phenomenon. And the owls that I was handling that woke were both Barn Owls. I stopped handling any others after I figured it out. Barn Owls were by far the most common rehab raptors there. I found it best if they woke in a dark, quiet area, away from people.

I would add that this Yellowthroat looks pretty tame, maybe was handled when stunned and woke up? Just a guess. It always bothers me when I see a wild songbird looking tame, with a cage in the same pic.

[folkeye]

You guys are too negative.

The bird survived fine with water and crushed up millet seeds in the box.
I actually took it out this morning and it was a lot healthier.
It drank some water, then I decided it was fine and opened the window
and it hung out with me by the window for a few minutes then flew away gracefully
to a tree across the street.

The bird was a victim of slamming into a hi rise building and probably falling.
i give the bird credit. It survived it, and gained strength, and then flew off.

so write your own twisted ending to this story, my ending was reality.

Congrats on the bird getting strong enough to fly on it's own. It is a happy ending, nothing to twist about it.

The members here just want to see what's best for an injured bird and its survival, that's all.

[fisherman1313]

You guys are too negative.

The bird survived fine with water and crushed up millet seeds in the box.
I actually took it out this morning and it was a lot healthier.
It drank some water, then I decided it was fine and opened the window
and it hung out with me by the window for a few minutes then flew away gracefully
to a tree across the street.

The bird was a victim of slamming into a hi rise building and probably falling.
i give the bird credit. It survived it, and gained strength, and then flew off.

so write your own twisted ending to this story, my ending was reality.

The bird survived but it was through pure luck, the millet had nothing to do with it. How would you feel being locked in a box for what amounts to an entire day with nothing that you recognize as food?