Any idea what this chick is?

thedarkroom

Hi, anyone any idea what type of bird this chick might be. A friend of mine found it in the grass in his garden yesterday. It is still alive but must be a day old as it's eyes have not yet opened.

Mothman

I was about to lock thread, was same photo as in first post here

thedarkroom
I assume posted in error

chucken1

Is it not very late for chicks? I thought they'd all be born and reared by now

Mothman

I reckon a pigeon/dove.
My best guess is Wood Pigeon

Regarding being late for chicks, many species will attempt more than one brood during the year with the likes of Swallows feeding young towards end of September or even later

chucken1

Ya looks like a wood pigeon.


What should the op do now? Poor little chick

Mothman

Pigeons are very hard to hand rear.
It isn't like many other birds which open their mouth and you drop food in.
Baby pigeons take food out of their parents mouths and so I believe this needs to be artificially done, Google it, there'll be youtube videos.

I think by far the most important thing now though is getting it and keeping it warm.
Probably 38-40C. If kept warm, it can possibly survive a day or do without food.

quercus

i reared a pigeon chick from the same age last year, was actually quite easy, firstly you need to keep it warm,
i fed mine on porrige oats, canary seed, rice crispys all mixed together in hot water and let cool, not cold as this would shock the chick, i mixed it into a paste not too runny and placed in a syringe with the bottom cut off and a finger of a laytex glove pulled over it with a slit cut in the glove so the chick can push its beak in as if its the mothers mouth.
then squeeze gently an the chick will gulp it down, keep going untill the craw is swollen up nicely.
i did this 3 times a day morning, afternoon and late evening.
its important to clean the chick off as it can get messy and sticky.
also if you just put your fingers either side of its beak it usually jumps up and opens its beak.
good luck

Birdnuts

I'm more interested in how the OP managed to procure a pet gorilla:eek::D;)

thedarkroom

Hi All,
Thanks for the replies. Looks like it's a wood pigeon alright. My friend has handed it over to some one to try hand rearing, hopefully it works out. I'll pass on all the info regards rearing.

swifts need our help!

I hand reared a wood pigeon years ago. I would make a soup of porridge and chewed nuts in my mouth and pushed its beak through slighly opened lips

Going by the size of this bird I would say it's only hatched

Mark

Birdnuts

The bird in the pic looks remarkably like a small scale version of a Dodo, which of course was a type of giant Pigeon:cool: