Injured bird

youcrazyjesus!

Caught a magpie pinning a smaller bird to the ground and pecking at it out my back garden. There seemed to be a large bird standoff with lots of noise, the magpie was cackling and the rest of the birds were higher up making noise. They were of the same breed as the injured bird. I chased the magpie away. The bird has no visible injuries but looks like it's been out drinking all night!

It's completely weak and dazed. Tries to walk but keels over. Can barely move. It can outstretch wings but certainly no possibility of flying. Legs, wings and eyes seem ok though. Seems to be just complete and utter exhaustion, although it's hard to tell, I'm not even a birdwatcher. I just hate magpies.

I've put it in a cardboard box with an airhole in the shed for the night. It's completely quiet there and relatively warm. The bird is slumped in the corner with it's head pressed up against the side.

Not sure if the bird will survive, with shock or whatever. Is this the correct thing to do? Just leave it in peace and quiet and see if it recovers?

It's a small, mice-sized brown bird with a large wingspan.

kaizersoze1980

youcrazyjesus! wrote: »

Caught a magpie pinning a smaller bird to the ground and pecking at it out my back garden. There seemed to be a large bird standoff with lots of noise, the magpie was cackling and the rest of the birds were higher up making noise. They were of the same breed as the injured bird. I chased the magpie away. The bird has no visible injuries but looks like it's been out drinking all night!

It's completely weak and dazed. Tries to walk but keels over. Can barely move. It can outstretch wings but certainly no possibility of flying. Legs, wings and eyes seem ok though. Seems to be just complete and utter exhaustion, although it's hard to tell, I'm not even a birdwatcher. I just hate magpies.

I've put it in a cardboard box with an airhole in the shed for the night. It's completely quiet there and relatively warm. The bird is slumped in the corner with it's head pressed up against the side.

Not sure if the bird will survive, with shock or whatever. Is this the correct thing to do? Just leave it in peace and quiet and see if it recovers?

It's a small, mice-sized brown bird with a large wingspan.

give it some water and seeds if you have any

Kess73

youcrazyjesus! wrote: »

Caught a magpie pinning a smaller bird to the ground and pecking at it out my back garden. There seemed to be a large bird standoff with lots of noise, the magpie was cackling and the rest of the birds were higher up making noise. They were of the same breed as the injured bird. I chased the magpie away. The bird has no visible injuries but looks like it's been out drinking all night!

It's completely weak and dazed. Tries to walk but keels over. Can barely move. It can outstretch wings but certainly no possibility of flying. Legs, wings and eyes seem ok though. Seems to be just complete and utter exhaustion, although it's hard to tell, I'm not even a birdwatcher. I just hate magpies.

I've put it in a cardboard box with an airhole in the shed for the night. It's completely quiet there and relatively warm. The bird is slumped in the corner with it's head pressed up against the side.

Not sure if the bird will survive, with shock or whatever. Is this the correct thing to do? Just leave it in peace and quiet and see if it recovers?

It's a small, mice-sized brown bird with a large wingspan.

You did right by the smaller bird, placing it in a box in a quiet shed, gives it a chance as long as it was not badly injured internally. Some water in the box would be a good idea.




I am guessing that mice sized is nice sized, if so it sounds as though it may be a young blackbird, one of this years hatchlings. They are brown when they are young, and the females stay brown even when fully grown.

What would have happened is that the magpie would have killed and eaten it, although not always in that order, as the smaller bird would most likely still be alive when the eating started.

I saw something similar of late with a magpie killing a starling and it basically pinned it to the ground and battered it by pecking it. A lot of birds from the corvid family do this. Corvids include magpies, jackdaws, carrion crows, rooks etc.


Be careful opening the box tomorrow, as if the bird has recovered, it may bolt at the first sight of light, and also the sight of a human will panic it too. Try to open the box facing away from you and at ground level if you can, that way the bird can hop out if it is ok and it will make it's own way. Just be aware that there is a good chance that you may open the box and find a dead bird.

youcrazyjesus!

Went down to put some water in a tray into the box. Sadly the bird is dead. At least I prevented it from being eaten by the magpie.

I notice a lot of single magpies around. Usually I see 2 or more when I see any.

They mate in spring presumably, do pairs separate for a time after this?

kaizersoze1980

youcrazyjesus! wrote: »

Went down to put some water in a tray into the box. Sadly the bird is dead.

Kess73

youcrazyjesus! wrote: »

Went down to put some water in a tray into the box. Sadly the bird is dead. At least I prevented it from being eaten by the magpie.

I notice a lot of single magpies around. Usually I see 2 or more when I see any.

They mate in spring presumably, do pairs separate for a time after this?

That is a shame, but you did all that you could.

Seeing single magpies does not mean they are not part of a pair, they roam around like that, sometimes as a visible pair, and sometimes you can only see one. I would almost be certain that when you can see one, the second one is only a call by the other away.


What you may also see in the spring is large gatherings of magpies, these
are called parliaments, and it is where the social standing and territorial issues get resolved.

youcrazyjesus!

Oops. I left the bird in the box overnight on the off chance it was just sleeping or whatever. I opened the box this morning and placed the bird on the ground, it was breathing, so after a few gentle prods it woke up and it eventually flew away.

Roen

Happy ending after all! Well done

artieanna

I didn't think he would survive the shock...Nice one

Tea drinker

Well done...
I wonder what to do with all these magpies... I've seen 14-17 in these gatherings. What chance do small birds have?

It wasn't me!

Not to become repetitive in here, but this is one of the areas where corvid control does a lot of good.

Tea drinker

I agree, when a non native species is introduced it can really disrupt the ecosystem. Magpies just happen to be VERY clever, brave birds who are a born survivor.

I don't think pheasants are anything like as bad and fit ok with the existing wildlife. Both are beautiful in their own way.

gerky

This comes up over and over again, while seeing a magpie taking eggs or young birds isn't very nice, a lot of things in nature aren't and it only occurs for a short period of the year.

There have been several legitimate studies done on this, one with over 30 years of data from the RSPB and none have shown that magpie have any real impact on numbers of other birds

As I have said before it has been admitted to me before by several hunters/shooters in my area that they main reason they kill corvids (crows/mags) is that they don't want them to take pheasant eggs or other game birds they intend to shoot themselves and others said they make good target practices not exactly what I'd call caring for the environment.

Kess73

It wasn't me! wrote: »

Not to become repetitive in here, but this is one of the areas where corvid control does a lot of good.

What magpie' do is natural, and while it may not be the most pleasant thing to see, it happens and has done since the first magpie popped up on the face of the earth.

Nature has it's own series of checks and controls, the magpie is just one of these.

I find them to be a very clever and resourceful bird, and also one that can show varying personalities from bird to bird.

Kess73

Tea drinker wrote: »

Well done...
I wonder what to do with all these magpies... I've seen 14-17 in these gatherings. What chance do small birds have?

As I said in an earlier post in the thread, a gathering like what you saw is called a parliament, and it is to sort out the social standings and territorial issues amongst the birds present.