It has been quite busy here lately with harvesting and garden clean-up. Day before yesterday the Bride and I stood in the kitchen processing Swiss Chard, when we heard a loud "BONK"! We glanced left and right and saw nothing. We did recognise the sound though---a bird had flown into the closed window. Ouch. The signs were on the glass. I opened one of the windows and looked down to the ground and saw a headless brown ball of feathers. ---During the course of this thread, if you think that you recognize the bird, write it down and you will find the answer at the end--- I dried my hands and took off downstairs. I went through the door and ran over to the unconscious bird. I placed it in that blue bucket that you see in the lower left hand corner of the foto. The Bride stayed upstairs and took this pic out the window. Once upstairs, we placed the limp bird in a crate, covered it with a dishcloth and set it in a dark room for thirty minutes. After that time we had another look, and the bird was sitting up with its head erect. one eye was half open. We called the "Animal Ambulance" to hear what they had to say about what should be done further. They said to keep it in the dark room and they would come and pick it up. An hour-and-a-half later the doorbell rang. It was the volunteers from the Animal Ambulance. They said that they get all sorts of injured birds, but they had never had one of this sort. Do you recognize this bird? They have a peculiar method of brooding, namely it is not raised by its real parents--a "brood-parasite" in other words... The true mother lays its eggs in the nest of a different sort of bird, and removes a couple of the eggs. When this bird in the picture hatches out it pushed the chicks of the host bird out of the nest and the host birds feed it as if it were their own. It is the Cuculus canoris rufous -varient.....or the Cuckoo. I believe that it is a juvenile female. The Animal Shelter will call us when it is well and we will pick it up and release it into the park where it came from.
Interesting Sjoerd. We have the brown headed cow bird who parasitizes song bird nests. I have never seen the cuckoo. It is very unique looking.
For years I would get calls from fellow employees because a bird had flown into a window. Into a shoe box they would go and then into an empty file cabinet. I would place a reminder tag on my brief case so as to not forget the bird over night. Usually I had enough time to release an injured bird before going home in the evening. The one exception was the full grown Canada goose that went through a large plate glass window. After the goose incident hawk silhouettes were pasted on the plate glass windows at strategic places. Jerry
Beautiful bird Sjoerd and the colours besides the excellent shots you took ...looks like it was knocked unconscious and with your care it finally came around and I hope it recovers well for you to replace it back in to the wild.
Gosh Sjoerd it's a long time since I've seen a cuckoo!! I think it must be at least five years since I heard, or saw one, but sadly, it wasn't around here. I think there's only around 1500 pairs still breeding in the UK Hopefully, with your help and the animal ambulance folks the bird will recover fully and you'll be able to set it free. I'll look forward to your update.
Hi CAROLYN-- I know the cow bird. I also know that there are two other birds, namely the Yellow-billed cuckoo and the black-billed cuckoo that exist over there; however, they are not in the same family as the Cuculus pictured here. I'm glad that you liked the posting. JERRY--That goose story was shocking. Hopefully those stickers will help. Thanks so much, KILDALE. Thank you GAIL--We still have not heard from the Animal Ambulance people. I appreciate your nice words FRANK. Yeah EILEEN--those birds are on the red list here and their numbers have been dropping. Still no word from the ambulance folks.
Update: We got a fone call from the Animal Shelter this morning. The cuckoo's weight was found to be too low, they planned to force-feed it, but it also became hypothermic, so they put it in an incubator....it was found dead this morning. We will never know the exact dynamics of the bird's demise, but it is a terrible shame. Sorry that the disposition is not better.
Sorry to hear the bad news Sjoerd the cuckoo must have been in a bad way but at least yourself and the animal ambulance tried to help it.
It's never easy trying to treat wildlife. They get stressed far more readily than domestic animals. Sometimes I wish we could communicate with them to let them know we're only trying to help them. At least the cuckoo wasn't left lying outside somewhere to die or to be predated by other creatures. A sad ending but if you don't try then many animals wouldn't make it back into the wild.
Thanks for your comforting words GAIL-- Such things make me feel so sad, but like you said at least I have solace in that we tried to help it. EILEEN-- I know that you know about such things since you worked in a vet practice once. We have come across a number of injured birds with out bird protection activities and sometimes we find them on the lottie. I am happy that there is a service that tends to injured wildlife. We made a donation.
Oh, that’s a shame Sjoerd.. Just reading about them: they go into another’s nest and throw out an egg so it can lay it’s own...shocking behavior!! K
