Sunday, February 3, 2008

Injured Pine Siskin


(not the injured Siskin)

Yesterday, after looking outside our office window to check on the local population, we saw a Pine Siskin hopping along the ground. Mind you, we had a decent amount of snow on the ground and all of the other Siskins were flying from feeder to feeder. But this little guy was just hopping through the snow. Then we saw him flap his wings a few times but he couldn't make it off the ground. Then, when he tried to tuck his wings back in, the left one stayed sticking out. We raced outside to see if we could capture him. We have quite a few neighborhood cats and a multitude of hawks that come through on a regular basis, so we wanted to get him off the ground as soon as possible.

We grabbed a box and put some towels in it along with a little tin of thistle seed and sunflower chips. We then headed out to the Audubon Society in hopes of getting the little guy some help. The Wildlife Care Center is open everyday of the year for sick or injured birds.


However, when we got there, it was locked up. We asked around and someone came straight over and opened it up. He made an assessment of the Siskin and got him settled into a heated cage, gave him some food and water and covered the cage with a towel. He assigned the Siskin a number and asked if we wanted to be the ones to release him when (and if) he recovered. We immediately responded with a resounding "YES".

So this morning, I called on little number #92 and was told that he is doing very well. He's eating, drinking and chirping away! They have the wing wrapped, but it is too swollen to tell if it is broken or just fractured. They also put him on antibiotics in case he was bitten or scratched by a cat. She told us to call in 4 or 5 days to check on his condition. They, depending on it being either a fracture or break, will need to keep him for a week to 3 weeks. So we will continue to call and check up on him and then, when it's time, we will go retrieve him and release him in the yard that we took him from (ours).

I just wanted to say thank you to all of the hard and dedicated workers at the Audubon Society, with special thanks to those who make it their mission to save every bird that comes through their doors. All of this attention for one little Pine Siskin almost brought tears to our eyes.



Thanks to all and good birding!

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5 comments:

sandy said...

That is one lucky little birdy...

so cool you rescued it and will be looking forward to updates....

sandy

NW Nature Nut said...

Glad to hear its just a broken wing and not one of the diseases finches fall prey to this time of year. We were up at Audubon today for a little walk. It sure is nice to have them in our community.

Bird Feeder Scott said...

It's great to hear that the Audubon Society took such great care of this bird. I will keep that in mind if I ever find an injured bird in my yard. Keep us up to date about your injured bird!

Anonymous said...

What a great story. I hope the bird made it. I just came home and found a Golden-crowned sparrow on my doorstep, that someone had placed on a paper bag. He can't fly, and doesn't seem to want to move. i have him in a box in a warm, dark room. Unfortunately, our Wildlife Rehab Center is closed until tomorrow am.

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