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Fledged Song Thrush in trouble...advice? (1 Viewer)

Sancho

Well-known member
Europe
Hi, local cats seem to have decimated a brood of Song Thrushes that fledged today from a neighbour´s hedge. I rescued the last one from a sticky situation. It seems in robust health, and was opening it´s beak to be fed when I rescued it. I´ve put it (delicately balanced) in a rowan tree outside our house where it´s parents have been alarm-calling all day. They are now flying in and out of the tree, but don´t seem to be feeding the baby. I know a rowan tree isn´t the ideal place for a fledged Song Thrush that can´t fly, but if I put it on the ground it will scamper under a hedge and be cat-food fairly quickly. Night will fall in about two hours. I also know the advice is always to leave a wild young bird where it is, it´s parents know best how to raise it. But this time I am torn between leaving it, and taking it in to try and hand-rear. Which is probably a pretty stupid idea. Anyone got any advice? Do I leave it where it is and hope for the best? Do I put it under a hedge? Or, as the parents don´t seem to be feeding it, do I take it in?
 
I don't think I'd want to leave it anywhere where a cat could be if it fell to the ground.

Are there no wildlife rescue orgs in your area that could take the fledgling?
 
Torn between options 1 and 3 Sancho.

What about a compromise.... bring it in and give it a feed, then put it out again. Maybe repeat just before dark if the parents still haven't fed him.

Then cross fingers overnight!
 
I don't think I'd want to leave it anywhere where a cat could be if it fell to the ground.

Are there no wildlife rescue orgs in your area that could take the fledgling?
Unfortunately not, KC. And no organisations available at the moment during lockdown. I found good advice online about caring and feeding for the fledgling, but it says it requires feeding every ten minutes during the day. It is still in the tree outside my house, and hasn´t been fed for over an hour. I don´t know if i have the resources or time to care for it, I´ve no idea how long it would take to fly and fend for itself, or if my intervention would mess up its development and turn it into a messed-up Song Thrush. It´s killing me watching it from my window, it must be getting hungry now, and the parents have left. I haven´t seen them now for about a half-hour.
 
Torn between options 1 and 3 Sancho.

What about a compromise.... bring it in and give it a feed, then put it out again. Maybe repeat just before dark if the parents still haven't fed him.

Then cross fingers overnight!
That´s a good compromise, Delia. If it hasn´t died by nightfall, I´ll take it in, feed it, and put it out again first light.
 
That´s a good compromise, Delia. If it hasn´t died by nightfall, I´ll take it in, feed it, and put it out again first light.
'


Been reading your thread & keep going back to it....


Gutted to hear that those B'strd (already well-fed), cats have done what cats DO far too often..... **

** (decimating something SO beautiful, yet, so needlessly)


Blackbirds might be more varied, but, for ME, Mistle-Thrush/Song-Thrush are my absolute faves.
(just something SO haunting about their voices !)


Totally agree with your last few lines & suggestions, as the way I see it - Give the poor mite a chance !

Seriously Sanch', Good luck with your endevour mate !

Remember, if 'He/She' DOES survive into adulthood, you'll be rewarded over the next few seasons....

(Every one saved, "IS" a potential parent for the future....)

.
 
Thanks Hornchurch! Latest update...I prepared the shoe box, plastic tweezers, tiny bits of cooked ham, cheese and blueberries, a water dropper, etc. Then went out to find the little fella on the footpath. Moved slowly to pick him up, and he scarpered under a big griselina hedge with tons of dry leaf-matter underneath. He was chirping alarm or something. So I decided, rather than start rooting around under the hedge and stressing him out more, and possibly injuring him/her, I had better leave nature to its devices. Hopefully the leaves will keep it warm, and the parents will find it later, or tomorrow morning. (I also have a teenage son in C-19 self-isolation in the house...I sincerely hope I don't find another cat-victim bird, I can do without the stress!;))
 
Oh!! Well good luck lad. Hope he gets through the night then.
 
Thanks Delia. I'm a bit heartbroken, I don't fancy his chances. And the neighbour's cat will probably be let out again in the morning. But you know what the healthy fledglings are like...under a hedge, if I try to find him/her, he/she will just keep scurrying away deeper into the dead foliage.
 
You're doing all the right things Sancho so fingers crossed for the fledgling. I think I would try setting up some cat traps and then disposing them somewhere else.
 
That wouldn't matter to me. It's your property.
I suppose it's a,cultural.thing, KC. Here (and I believe also in Britain) cats are allowed to wander freely. I've never heard of anyone bringing a complaint that so.eone's cat was in their yard/garden. Dogs are a different matter, by law,they have to be under control or on a leash. I won't lie, I hate cats, or at least the domesticated marauding felines that somehow pass as 'pets'. But I don't want to upset cat lovers on BF...
 
Thanks Delia. I'm a bit heartbroken, I don't fancy his chances. And the neighbour's cat will probably be let out again in the morning. But you know what the healthy fledglings are like...under a hedge,
if I try to find him/her, he/she will just keep scurrying away deeper into the dead foliage.
'


Sanch',

Coupla days on now mate & yet no update ; What happened ?

Did he/she survive ?

If so (hopefully:t:), what's the latest ?


.
 
Sadly, I don't think so, HC. No sign of any ST activity in the area. The Dawn Chorus doesn't even include ST now, it's mostly blackbirds leading the choir. I wish some cat owners could consider how much work for a bird pair goes into rearing a brood.
 
Sadly, I don't think so, HC. No sign of any ST activity in the area. The Dawn Chorus doesn't even include ST now, it's mostly blackbirds leading the choir. I wish some cat owners could consider how much work for a bird pair goes into rearing a brood.
'

Pretty gutted reading that Sanch' - WAS hoping for a favourable outcome.

Woulda been superb "if" the rearing parents woulda fed the 'sole survivor'

Now, as for cats, we still have one in the house (taken-in as an 'abused' abandoned stray)

He's wonderful with other animals, but will confront both Humans & large dogs, aggressively !

He'll sit in the courtyard with various birds only a few yards away, literally & I'll be thinking 'Oh Jeeez'

But he just sits there, soaking up the sun, chilling & has NEVER killed another animal**
(Quite amazing, given he's fearless in a fight & absolutely dominant, locally)

Given I'm an animal-lover all round, my sympathies AND loyalties ALWAYS fall on the side of birds.

Back in the 1980's, my Church minister asked to borrow my air-rifle (to shoot his neighbour's cat !)
He had a very small garden, plus infant toddler children - Cat would defecate, toxins, etc.

I refused, repeatedly (that was almost 40-years ago), plus I believe it's illegal ?

I had issues with my (dopey, selfish), neighbour, who'd bought TWO new Jet-Black kittens.

They both grew up to be vicious/lethal killers, wiping-out our local bird population.

Unhappy with the 'inbalance' & naturally, inherently myself being on the side of birds....

I bought several high-powered catapults & kept a stash of pebbles near house/garden doors.

Managed to save the life of a beautiful male blackbird - was SIDEWAYS in the cat's jaws !

I scared the bejesus outta the nasty cat, who, then FLEW up my conifer tree @ 400+ MPH o:D

How the adult Blackbird went from 'sideways in the cat's jaw', to "liberated" was AMAZING :t:

Luckily he ascended/flew up to a neighbouring lamp-post, but hyperventilating, badly.

I watched intently, hoping he'd recover, which he did after some 12+ mins later.

Most cat owners ARE blithely ignorant & I can see as to 'why' Chris Packham "hates" 'em.

.
 
Yes, I suppose not all cats are the same. I advise (only when asked!) the use of two bells on the cat collar. I read somewhere years ago that cats are smart enough to stalk and pounce with one bell, but two bells clinking off each other gives a bird a chance to hear and escape. Maybe I read it on BF!
 
I.found the desiccated corpse of the fledgling under the hedge yesterday. Must have starved. Probably wouldn't have survived had I taken it in to hand-rear either. Ah well. :-C
 
Oh dear!! Oh that is such a shame.

Thanks for letting us know Sancho.
 
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