Blackbird trying to remove its own foot.

[glsammy]

Had a distressing sight just now. Our new resident male blackbird has broken its foot.
I watched him for over an hour trying to remove the useless foot.
I tried to get a few shots of him and managed a couple of very poor ones. The light in that area of our garden is terrible at the best of times.
To be honest I'm glad they were poor.





He didn't manage to remove the foot, but it's only dangling down on a bit of flesh and no doubt will soon drop off.

[~T~]

Nature is amazing but can be harsh at times eh?

[Synn]

I've seen gulls, and pigeons with only one foot managing to feed well, so maybe he'll fair okay

[Elizabeth B]

We've recently been watching a one legged bluetit coming to the caged mealworm feeder that is just outside the study window. He seems to manage very well, hopping around in the pyracantha against the wall and coming down to feed. I hope your bird will soon learn to cope.

[Kayleigh]

How sad and painful it must be for him..
We had a sparrow last year that lost its foot but there was a large bulbous swelling on the end of the stump and looked inflamed then he didn't show up again so I think he didn't make it..

[glsammy]

I think he will be OK. I've seen many birds with either deformed or missing feet.
He's got plenty of food around him, I see to that. It'll be interesting to see if he keeps his mate.
It was a sad sight watching him trying to remove the foot.

[JeffH]

That's a sad sight/story Graham but, like you and others, I've seen a number of one legged/footed birds that seem to be able to get by so I hope he's OK and that his mate doesn't desert him because of his disability

Jeff
(Schedule 1 Licence holder for Kingfishers, Barn Owls and Avocets)

[glsammy]

I don't think he will. I think he may originally have damaged it some time ago. We've been watching him eating our apples which are placed on a spike on one of our feeders and we were laughing how he always flapped his wings as he ate. Thinking about it now I think he might have already lost the use of that foot and was forced to flap his wings as a way of providing support as he ate. He was often on one leg, but you often see birds doing that so I thought no more about it.
He allows me to come really close to him when I'm putting out his food so if he did injure himself some time ago, he's done a good job of hiding it.

[cheffievrs]

I was in Ludlow on friday afternoon having a wonder near the castle and a robin came and sat on one of the many benches there and i took a couple of shots, and realised it only had one leg..!!

[Brocakat]

Make me wonder , especially with songbirds ( as opposed to Birds of Prey - which I always assume [ perhaps I'm being a bit harsh to keepers yet again ] loose a foot to a trap) -- how this happens?
Would it be to a Sparrowhawk or similar, most likely? I'm supposing that a BoP might learn to go for a foot, as it will learn that feathers easily come out & enable the songbird to escape. And that not all foot-grabs are successful.