Caring for orphaned birds
At this time of year many Australian species of birds are either breeding or about to breed. In the natural order of these things baby birds sometimes fall out of the nest or are orphaned for a variety of reasons. I regularly get requests for help and advice in these situations. I am sorry to say – but I have no experience or qualifications in caring for wildlife. This is best left to the trained experts. So it has been timely that Tammy, one of my readers, has made this comment on one of my earlier posts.
My name is Tammy and I’m a wildlife carer, I have been raising baby birds for years and love doing it – saving our precious native birds and animals so they can go back to the wild is an amazing feat.
I’ve been reading your blog and I agree that yes, it is best to leave the raising of these guys to their parents ( they do a better job) or if the baby is orphaned phone a wildlife care group nearest you. They are regularly trained each year to do this, as well as licenced by National Parks and Wildlife.
Every spring/summer I spend sometimes up to 12 hours a day feeding tiny baby birds ( all different species but mostly tiny insectivorous ones) and I really enjoy it.
About hand feeding the birds in your backyard – we usually are against this, but in times of need for instance drought, I am known to support feed some birds around our place if i’ve released them. We do this in a way that they still will learn to hunt for themselves and gradually taper off feeding times and amounts slowly so the bird does not starve.
But to do this right, you need the balanced diet that they need to keep them healthy and if you are not trained to do this the proper way, the bird becomes tame ( or imprinted) to you ( or any human being that’s around). This is bad for the bird because it will lose it’s fear of humans/ pets which results in the bird being eventually killed by a predator. ( humans, dogs, cats)
Happy bird watching – Tammy
Thanks to Tammy for this advice.
Look in your phone directory for the nearest wildlife carer. There are also many groups listed on the internet, some of them with articles outlining how to care for the bird or animal until a trained carer can get to you.
Related article:
Caring for injured or orphaned birds
New Holland Honeyeater
I frequently get asked questions about caring for injured or orphaned birds. Some people leave their questions on an appropriate page of this site, while others ask their questions privately using my contact from here.
I am no expert
I often explain to people with this questions that I am certainly no expert in this field. I have no experience and very little knowledge in looking after injured or orphaned native birds or animals. I usually try to direct them to relevant help from elsewhere.
Legislation
Every state of Australia has its rules and regulations as to what members of the public can and cannot do where helping injured wildlife is concerned. As a general principle, never try to look after an injured animal or bird unless you are skilled to do so and have the necessary permission from the relevant authorities in your state.
Steps to take:
- The welfare of the animal or bird is most important: make sure that the bird is safe from further harm. Keep little children, cats and dogs away, handle it as little as possible and keep it in a strong, ventilated cardboard box.
- Contact or visit your local vet for advice. Some of my readers have been very disappointed with this course of action, stating that some vets are very dismissive and only recommend that the animal be destroyed. I find this response rather perplexing; I thought vets cared for animals.
- Use the Yellow Pages phone directory to find your nearest animal welfare and rescue organization. There are hundreds of skilled and trained carers across Australia and there is every likelihood there is one near you.
- Contact or visit your local pet shop: help coming from these people will also vary greatly. Some may be very willing to help, others only will help if there is a potential sale of goods involved.
- Visit your local library and ask for books on pet and animal care.
- Search on the internet: this is how I get so many requests for help. In some cases, people have said that this site was the ONLY place they found any information and help. That is not correct, but many people do not know how to effectively search the internet. Because of this I have prepared a list of useful Australian sites.
Useful web sites:
- Fauna Rescue of South Australia – while this is based here in SA, the information is useful throughout Australia, especially in regards to preparing food for injured animals.
- Caring for wildlife – a fact sheet produced by the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife.
- Feeding advice for magpies – a fact sheet produced by the Bird Care and Conservation Society.
- Animal Welfare League
- Australian Seabird Rescue
- Bird Care and Conservation Society – many fact sheets are available on this site.
- Wildcare Australia
- WIRES – Australian Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service – includes contact details throughout NSW.
- Rehabilitating birds – and extensive article written by one of the experts at Healesville Sanctuary in Victoria.
Overseas groups:
Always remember that the bird’s welfare is the most important thing to consider.
Updated November 2013.
Rescue of the ten little ducklings
3 Comments »9th December, 2007; Category: Baby birds, Bird Behaviour, Ducks Geese and Swans, Garden birds
Pacific Black Duck with ten ducklings
From time to time we have Pacific Black Ducks visiting our swimming pool. Sometimes a solitary bird, more often two and sometimes three. They might hang around for a few days and then we won’t see them for weeks or months.
Several years ago we had a mother duck bring about five or six ducklings to the pool. On that occasion we found the ducklings too late. Because they had been in the water and couldn’t get out, they all died, even though we tried to care for them. They probably were far too exhausted or possibly became too cold.
On Friday we had another family of ducks visit the pool. We are in severe water restrictions due to the drought at present and I’ve been reluctant to fill the pool, so the water level was down quite a long way compared to its normal level. I haven’t bothered to begin cleaning it for summer either, but that is another story. Once again I was fearful of losing all ten little ducklings.
My dear wife came to the rescue with a brilliant device for rescuing the ducklings. She found a length of chicken netting with a wooden frame around it. It was about a square metre in size. This was placed like a ramp from the water to the edge of the pool. She then draped an old towel over the netting and anchored the whole thing with several bricks. Within the hour the whole family found the ramp and they were on their way, hopefully down to the river. Now the River Murray is about four kilometres away, so that is a long march for a family of little ducklings. A search of the property later found not sign of them, so I am assuming they are well on their way to safety on the river.
Pacific Black Duck with ten ducklings
Further reading:
New Holland Honeyeaters breeding
One of my readers left the following comments and question on a post from last year about New Holland Honeyeaters:
We’ve been watching a pair of New Holland Honeyeaters building their nest in an ornamental tree in our courtyard in Kensington (SA). Really been lovely to watch them.
Do they stay together as mates?
That is a very good question Tony. It is one I hadn’t given all that much thought to, so I had to do my research.
Leave them in peace:
It is indeed a great delight to watch birds nesting and as they go about feeding the young. The urge to breed is very strong and they will tolerate people going about their daily lives only metres away. If you have birds nesting in your garden, try not to disturb them too much.
Breeding behaviour:
The pair that have mated and built the nest will generally feed the young together. In some bird species only the female sits on the eggs and feeds the young while the male defends the territory (for example, Australian Magpies). In other species the whole thing is a cooperative affair. With the Australian Fairy-wrens for example, the whole extended family will build the nest and feed the young.
Monogamous pairs:
As far as New Holland Honeyeaters are concerned they tend to breed in monogamous pairs; they stay together as mates for the entire breeding cycle. They will often breed several times in a season. If still alive the next breeding season they will also bond together again as a pair.
Again, my thanks to Tony for a great question.
Further reading:
- Great Birding Moments: New Holland Honeyeater
- Great Birding Moments – more good reading.
New Holland Honeyeater
Baby Coots
Eurasian Coot (juvenile)
A few months ago I wrote about a short stop we had at Kapunda to have a cup of tea. We were travelling from Clare back home to Murray Bridge. When we stop for a cuppa we always look for promising birding spots. By doing that we’ve seen some excellent birds over the years.
Eurasian Coot (juvenile)
One of the delights of this particular stop was the family of baby Eurasian Coots that stormed over to where we were having our picnic cuppa. They must have been very used to people because they were quite unconcerned about walking all around us, between our legs and searching around the picnic table for any loose crumbs from our biscuits.
Eurasian Coot (juvenile)
Such obliging photographic subjects are hard to find in the natural environment. This however, was far from a natural environment. The picnic grounds were next to an artificial lake often frequented by humans. The birds quickly learn that humans are an easy touch for free handouts.
Eurasian Coot (juvenile)
Click on the photo to enlarge the image.
Eurasian Coot feeding juvenile
Related articles:
- White Faced Heron – with photos taken at the same location.
- Picnic at Kapunda – from my travel blog.