Beer Can Hill

I found an injured bird on my patio the day before St. Patrick’s Day. I believe he had hit the plate glass window and, for lack of a better term, knocked himself stupid. He didn’t resist when I picked him up and he could only hold one eye open. I had no idea what kind of bird he was.

Common sense and my experience with other ill/injured birds told me that he needed to be treated for shock before I could do anything else for him. It was 5 pm when I found him and battling traffic to get him to any veterinarian would probably not work out in the bird’s favor.

I took him inside and placed him in one of my cockatiel’s travel carriers. I wrapped him up and put a heating pad under the little cage. While I waited to see if he was going to come out of shock I tried to find out what kind of bird I had. Most of the urban birdwatchers I spoke with online and showed pictures to were helpful. They generally agreed that the bird was either a Cedar or Bohemian Waxwing.

I am not an orinthologist or a veterinarian. I tried to articulately express to the “experts” that I had experience with both parrots and rescuing wildlife without sounding like a know-it-all. However, I still received a lot of criticism for trying to help the bird. Some people assumed that I had limitless options when it came to veterinary care. Others stated that I should be turned in to law enforcement for “keeping a wild animal.” One person even told me that I should’ve just left him on the patio outside and “allowed nature to sort it out.”

I didn’t plan to keep the bird. For one thing, I wasn’t sure that he was going to live. For another, if he did survive but was disabled I would’ve consulted with the local wildlife rehabilitation center on what to do next.

Fortunately, the bird survived the night. He opened his eye and was able to perch and hop around with difficulty within 4-5 hours of being on the heating pad. He drank water and ate the berries I offered him on his own. By the time he was better it was dark outside. Most birds don’t see well at night so I waited until the next morning to let him go.

Even after the bird had been released, I received an email from a woman chewing me out for offering the bird food and water.  I was amazed at the knee-jerk hostility and hysteria.  No wonder why people are not confident about helping animals!

Seconds before release.

I’ve seen my little friend since I let him go. As far as I can tell, my incident with the bird did not upset Fresno’s ecological balance. I am glad that he made it and is free again.