Baby bird in toilet episode! :eek:

[twitterati]

Hi all

I had a rather freaky afternoon yesterday and want to know if I did the right thing.

My poor other half had a bit of a shock when he went to spend a penny at about 3 O'Clock: flapping around in the toilet bowl was what appeared to be a half-drowned bird. After he'd finished hyperventilating (he had sat down before he felt it!!) we briefly considered flushing it since it seemed to be practically dead, but then human compassion took over and we found a way to get it out.

We took the sorry creature into the garden where we laid it on some newspaper inside a clear perspex box, and just watched it for a bit. At first it was looking in very bad shape - eyes shut, legs trembling. Then after about half an hour it started to look more like a normal but very wet bird. My other half had the idea of using a hairdryer on a very gentle setting to get its wings dry quicker, so we did that. It didn't seem to mind it, and it dried off quickly.

After that, we became worried because it wasn't able to fly even with dry wings, and it couldn't get its legs into the correct 'hopping' position. We left it for about another hour before transfering it on to a tea towl in the garden where it continued struggling to get up. I had to shoo off a few local cats, which was a worry. Eventually it stopped shaking but still couldn't stand. It looked pretty broken and was only making the occasional high-pitched squeal.

At this point I thought I might try feeding it with some milk and bread and was quite surprised when it immeditely took to it and started guzzling the milk. It was then that I realised it might actually not be as badly injured as we'd feared, but a baby that couldn't fend for itself. We looked up a few common birds online and sure enough it was very obviously a young blackbird.

We decided there was nothing we could do but leave it in place with some food reachable, so I did this for another hour or so then came back to find it was almost sitting up normally and was making regular chirruping noises. It was also spreading its wings and flapping them although it didn't seem to be doing a lot of good. Then I noticed there was at least one adult blackbird watching it and appearing with worms. I thought I might scare the blackbirds off so I left them to it, hoping they were feeding the baby.

This seemed to go on for a while but I came back maybe another half hour later and all the birds including the baby one had gone. I was delighted to see it had moved, but also rather worried that it might have been taken by a cat.

I guess what I want to ask is - how could it have moved if it seemed unable to fly? Might it have gathered enough strength to take off encouraged by its parents and food? I obviously hope so as I developed a bit of an attachment to this bird! Or is there some way the parents could have moved the baby? I was only in the next room, and generally hear the birds going crazy if there's a cat in the garden so think I would have noticed that. Also there were no stray feathers or other signs of a 'struggle'.

Finally, how the heck do you guys think this bird got into our toilet??? we don't even have an opening window in the room - only slats that would have been just large neough for it to get in.

Thanks for reading - I'd love to get some background on this from someone who actuall knows something about birds.

[valleyforge]

Hi twitterati and welcome to the forum.

Sounds like you probably made all the right moves ... except maybe keep an eye on it a bit longer to make sure it flew off and wasn't taken by a cat ... but I recognize that that's not always practical/possible. Let's just hope that it was reunited with its parents.

Fledglings do get themselves into some scrapes, and blackbirds are not nature's brightest creations ... but that does sound like a strange turn of events.

Do you have a cat that may have brought the bird into the toilet? If not then we'd have to assume that it somehow managed to get itself though the vent!

Well done in any case ... and especially for not flushing it.

[Dogghound]

Also never give birds milk! Milk is a mammalian product and has no part in a birds life cycle.

[valleyforge]

Originally Posted by Dogghound

Also never give birds milk! Milk is a mammalian product and has no part in a birds life cycle.

You are absolutely right Dogghound ... I only didn't mention it since in an overall bad day, ingesting a little milk was probably the least of the wee bird's problems.

Although I've heard folks swear that they've raised 'orphan' birds on bread & milk alone, what they generally mean is that they've fed that to the bird and then abandonned it. Athough fledglings may well ingest given foodstuff that's soft & moist, just filling it up is not the same thing at all as feeding.

A dehydrated bird may gain some little immediate benefit from the wetness of the milk, but the diarrhea (and resultant fluid loss) that indigestible milk can cause may infact compound dehydration.

Let's hope your raising this point Dogghound, allows others on the forum to not make that mistake in the future.

[twitterati]

Hi Valleyforge> I do wish I'd stayed to see it take off but I am fairly certain I'd have noticed if a cat had taken it. I was only in the next room and could hear the bird noises that were going on - and I know the sounds they make when a cat appears. With all the birds hanging around I really hope that this would have been fairly deafening - it certainly was earlier in the day when one tried to take the poor thing from the garden. In the end I decided it was best reunited with its parents, and they kept getting scared off whenever I appeared - hence my decision to leave it be for a while.

I sort of twigged about the milk thing after it was too late - but didn't have a lot else to give it as it wasn't accepting hard bits of bread.

I guess how it got there will remain a mystery - we don't have any pets.

[twitterati]

So...assuming (as I hope) that a cat didn't take it - how could this bird have moved? I haven't seen a trace of it since.

[rossy]

hello new member although you didnt see the young blackbird go these birds can also hop dont forget that. so if you have any holes in your fence or hedge they will find a way. the parents like to move them if any cats or other predators are nearby so a good chance that alls well for the little fella. rossy.

[hel_is_heaven]

I know this isn't really helpful but I was wondering - how on earth did a baby bird get into your loo in the first place?!
Helen

[Lance Morgan]

It probably flew in thru the window and fell into the bowl. Once wet it would not have been able to get out and quickly became exhausted. Well done for saving it.

[twitterati]

hel_is_heaven> I have no idea

Rossy> I really hope that's what happened. The thing that worries me is that when we were looking after it it couldn't hop at all - it seemed to be trying to get its legs down into a hopping position but they kept sort of snapping back. We did try supporting it in a tea towel but it just sort of sat in it and when we gently let down the sides, it would also fall on its side.

Is it possible its hopping powers might have returned when its parents arrived on the scene? By this stage it certainly seemed happier - was chirping etc.

Boo. I REALLY wish I'd been there to see it fly off!