Bird Handling? (1 Viewer)

What do you do if a bird hits you window? How do you handle it? how are you supposed to handle it?

How do you bird banders handle birds?

And is it ture that if a bird hits your window if you walk up to it itll have a heart attack? What about hummingbirds?

Thanks...

Garrett

Hi Garrett

In my past window strikes only 2 had broken their necks and there was no hope for them. All the others I picked up and either held or put in a box with lots of paper towelling until they recovered enough to let go. None suffered any heart attacks

When birds hit our windows, and if they're on the ground, I keep watch (inside) to make sure no predators can get to them before they can recover and take off. During the winter months, when it's cold, if they don't fly off immediately, I will sit outside and hold them in my cupped hands (for warmth) in the sun and in the lee of the wind until they can hop or fly out of my hands. This has sometimes taken anywhere from 15 minutes to nearly an hour when the temps are low, but I haven't yet had one die in my hands. I've had several, however, that have died almost instantly from, I assume, a broken neck or other internal trauma.

Don't know about the heart attack response, but birds are very sensitive to stress and handling them certainly adds greatly to it if not done very carefully.

The only hummer that hit one of our windows landed on the deck and lay stunned. I did not pick him up -- they're extremely fragile -- but instead moved a couple of flower pots around to give him a little more cover, and in less than 10 minutes he buzzed off.

Has anyone heard this before? or does anyone do different things?

Please tell me cause i dont tihnk thesre are the only things...

Also IS IT TRUE that a bird can have a heart attack if you try and pick it up? or has anyone heard this before...

Garrett, I would suggest that you call your local vet or bird rehabber and get the facts from them.

Hi Garrett,

And is it ture that if a bird hits your window if you walk up to it itll have a heart attack? What about hummingbirds?

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Whilst I cannot comment on Hummingbirds (I only wish we had these beautiful birds here in the UK), the heart attack theory in birds is a myth.

I have been bird ringing (banding) for many years and the primary method of trapping is the use of mist nets - I would therefore never be able to remove a bird from the nets if immediate heart attacks were the case. Birds are remarkably robust and provided correct techniques are used in removal and handling, no bird suffers any trauma.

I have only ever had 2 window strikes and unfortunately both birds (robins) were killed on impact but if the bird were stunned only, then I would place it out of reach of predators - on a bird table, etc - and allow it to recover at its own pace.

Corvus Corax said:

Whilst I cannot comment on Hummingbirds (I only wish we had these beautiful birds here in the UK), the heart attack theory in birds is a myth.

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... the same goes for Hummingbirds. Sure, they shouldn't be handled for a prolonged period, but if kept at a minimum they seem to be no more sensible that other birds. A number of birds (all species, though some clearly are more prone to this than others) do die when being handled as anyone who's done plenty of mist-netting will know (I know there's been threads about that here on BF), but we are talking about a very small percentage. So, in general there are no prob's in handling a bird as long as you do it carefully, but of course you shouldn't do so unless there's a good reason for it.