Sydney’s Corner: Finding an Injured Bird

What do you do if you find an injured bird?  Here’s my story about finding an injured baby pigeon in Brasov, Romania.

I was just playing with some cats.  We were chasing pigeons.  I went around the corner and saw a pigeon sitting on the ground.  I walked towards it thinking it would fly away, but it did not.  I gently scooped it up.  The pigeon did not fly out of my hands.  I checked its’ wings to see if they were broken.  Yes they were.  I looked at the pigeon’s feet.  One of the feet was broken.  I walked around to see if it was just faking it.  No it was not.  I sat down and realized the pigeon was only a baby.  I think the baby pigeon fell out of its’ nest.

The pigeon liked sitting on my lap.  I offered the pigeon some bread, but she did not eat it.  The pigeon must have just fallen out of her nest, because she was not that hungry.  Just then a lady came.  She started talking to me in Romanian.

I asked, “English?” The lady still looked confused so  I said, “No Romanian.”

She said, “Ah, English. Could I pet the bird?”

I said, “Yes.”

The lady said, “I have a box for the pigeon.”

Just then my mom came and said, “Sydney, you put that bird down.  It may be sick.”

Just then the Lady said, “No, it only has some broken bones. I have a box.  I can take the pigeon.”

Then the lady said how well I did about finding the pigeon.  My mom said “Thank you for taking in the pigeon.”

I named the pigeon Jessica. I hope that the pigeon has a nice home.

 Tips for treating an injured bird

After I found Jessica, I looked up how to treat an injured bird.  Here is how to care for an injured bird.

If it is sick, you should call a vet.

If it is in shock or has broken bones then put it in a box.  Put a cover in the box and make air holes on the cover.  Make sure the bird is warm.  If it turns purple it means that it is super cold.  After putting the bird in a box, if the bird is still not doing too well then call a vet.

If you need to feed a bird this is what you feed them:

• This is what to feed an insect eater birds like starlings or robins: tinned cat or dog food and sometimes a worm on a toothpick.
• This is what you feed to the non-insect eater birds like house sparrows and pigeons:  For baby birds they can eat scrambled eggs.  For the adults they will eat wild birdseed.
• This is what you feed humming birds.  They eat sugar water nectar.  The recipe is 4 parts water and 1 part sugar.  Boil water and dissolve the sugar into the water. Cool the nectar to room temp.  Nectar can be offered at the tip of the beak with an eyedropper.

 Other tips for treating an injured bird

Here are some other tips for injured birds

• Do not force the bird to eat, but put some food in the box incase it gets hungry.
• Make the box comforting for the bird so it does not get more afraid.
• Hold the bird gently but a little hard so it does not fly out of your hand. I nearly hurt the pigeon by holding it too gently. The pigeon kept on trying to fly out of my hands and ended up banging its’ head on the ground.
• The most important tip is to call a vet if the bird does not get better.

Now you know what to do if you find a injured bird.