Poor Baby Crow (1 Viewer)

I recently posted a thread about the fact that I never have any crows in the garden - plenty of Jackdaws and Rooks. However, that changed yesterday. There was a youngster in the garden all day, crying pityfully to be fed every time any kind of black shape appeared in the sky, with no sign of any other crows. I put lots of food out especially for him, he ate and ate all day, he had sweetcorn, bread crumbs, wild bird seed, layers pellets, sultanas, and he drank plenty of water, but he trudged wearily up and down the garden all day. He could fly a bit, enough to get away from me if I went to close, he went up on the garage roof, or on to the fence. Several times what I think were his parent appeared on the overhead cables in the garden, and he begged and pleaded them to come down, and once one did, but only into the thick bushes down the side of my garden. I wasn't unduly concerned because he was eating for himself, and thought maybe it's the way the parents get them weaned. However, I still felt something must be wrong - why did he not fly off with them? And how did he get here in the first place, there are no crows nests for about half a mile from here. Anyway, I felt slight relief when I checked last night when I shut my chickens in that he was nowhere to be seen, at least he was out of harms way.

This morning I went out at 7.45 am to be greeted by the sight of him spread on the lawn by my chicken's food shelter, using his wings to prop himself up and rolling his eyes. Poor, poor thing. I picked him up and he was like a feather-covered skeleton, and covered in feather lice and fleas, literally being eaten alive I think. I covered him in a warm towel and put him in a box but he died within about 10 minutes. I was heartbroken, and couldn't have cried more if it had been one of my own pets. I get so upset at the death of a bird, and this poor little fella never even had a life to enjoy. Why is nature so cruel? He must have had something wrong with him I guess to have been that thin, having eaten so well yesterday. :C

These things are really upsetting. It's very sad to see such sad things happen. :0(

Hi Songbird,

Sometimes if an animal behaves contrary to the norm of it's own species, (and this does sound to be an ill bird), then it will often, though not always be abandoned by it's parents or own species.

The parent birds are not really being cruel by abandoning it though from our point of view it really does seem so and seems quite heartless on their part. Nature has probably selected this "selfish" trait so that a diseased animal that is abandoned, cannot pass on the agent of it's destruction to it's fellows or alternatively not waste precious food resources on it that would be better given to healthy chicks.

With all your good intentions Songbird (which I quite understand and sympathise with), that is usually the way of nature and though in the short term this sounds cruel, in the long term may well be of benefit to the rest of it's species. The creatures that we see around us look and behave the way they do because of it.

Hello Songbird

Echo the the above post. We have crows nesting in our (urban) street. There was a young but OK looking bird in the garden with what I took to be a parent. The youngster was struggling to fly, with the older bird looking on. When I came home the youngster was dead, with no marks or other obvious cause. Too weak or ill I guess.

My sympathies to you -- it's so hard to see a feathered creature go like that. But Steve is right: it is the way of nature, and the reasons are not always obvious.