Honey
I went out to check on her and she couldn't fly away. I cornered her, caught her, and brought her indoors. She was in pretty decent condition, no obvious problems except a little bit of a limp and the unwillingness to fully open her right wing. She was lean and hungry but not emaciated and just out of the nest, probably 4 weeks old. I set her up in the kitchen counter hospital and named her Honey.
The next day, after seeing that she was eating and pooping well and showing good energy, I moved her outdoors to my backyard loft.
Today, nine days later, she's doing great. She's no longer limping and can now fly again. I'm giving her a couple more days of recuperation and then she'll be released to rejoin her feral flock. She's very cute and sometimes I catch her making googly eyes at me like I'm her Mommy Bird or something (I sneak her extra seeds in her box) but my world is too full full full of homeless domestic pigeons that can't survive in the wild to keep a feral one that can (beyond those I already have!)
I've helped a bunch of ferals these past two years (mostly for string-entangled feet) but I don't add them to the website because I just don't have time to keep up with them all.
But I decided I would make time to add Honey and she can represent for all the lovely feral pigeons that sometimes just need a little helping hand in this tough world. If you find a feral pigeon (or any bird or animal) that needs help, help it! There are lots of resources to guide and support you along the way. My favorite is Pigeon Talk (www.pigeons.biz/forums) because it is such an incredibly helpful, responsive and knowledgeable group. And they're worldwide. Their expertise is pigeons and doves but you can get valuable support for ANY animal rescue question there.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Because pigeons are classified as "non-native species" which means they were introduced to the area by people (along with starlings and sparrows), shelters and wildlife rescues, ironically, often will not care for them and instead will euthanize a pigeon (or a starling or a sparrow) even when it could, with minimal care, make a full recovery. Do not surrender a non-native bird to a shelter without first determining what exactly they will do with it. There are people like me all over the world that will help you if a shelter won't.
And watch out- pigeons have a strangely powerful ability to charm the hell out of you. Look at what happened to me.
1 Comments:
3 months ago I stopped my car and tried to shooo a white pigeon out of the road so it would'nt get hit. It helplessly look up at me. I scooped him up and took him home to figure out what to do. Once he drank a lot of water and slept in our screened patio for 2 hours I knew I needed to find him a loving home and he wasn't meant to be in the wild (even though he had no band). I called our local wildlife rescue who said they would take him but I knew I wanted to find him a home he deserved and not just a temp place where he would get shuffled around or become a snack. We jokingly called him pooping Pete. To date...my husband and I and 3 grown children have fallen in love with him and my husband named him PD. We have 3 parrots and we now call PD part of our family. I'm now looking to purchase pigeon pants once I figure out his size so he can have more inside time with us. :)
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