#rescue cases

[rainyflock]

I'm sure I don't have to tell y'all, but your annual reminder that wild birds are NOT pets.

Story time. I had someone reach out to me this week and ask to surrender a pigeon. I take and treat pigeons when I have capacity, so I said of course, and we met up.

Instead, I was handed the most sad little mourning dove in the world. Her wing was amputated by a vet who then gave her to a friend's fourteen year old as a pet. They have been feeding her nothing but millet and sunflower seeds for the past two years, while she sat alone at the bottom of a cage.

The kid eventually lost interest because "she (the dove) doesn't want to be my friend."

This is a WILD BIRD. After her injury, she should have been transported to a licensed rehabilitator, who could have attempted to splint the fracture, treat the injuries, and get her back out in the wild. If she ended up being non-releasable anyways, she could have then been transported to a facility with other non-releasable doves and at least had the social interaction and specialized care she needed for a happy healthy life.

Instead, she is not just a captive wild bird, she is a deeply traumatized wild bird in very poor health due to malnutrition. Her feathers are breaking off. She is horribly underweight. Her beak is overgrown.

We are going to do what we can to get her healthy, but it is still too early to tell how much pain she experiences from her amputation, and how her quality of life is. She is tired and scared, but she seems to want to try, so we are giving her time to adjust and heal.

We are also hoping to introduce her to a fellow rehabber's flightless mourning dove for companionship if she responds well, since these guys are very social.

I am at this point just grateful she found her way to a rehabber in the end instead of into another home to sit in a cage alone and afraid for the rest of her days.

I sincerely hope this bird can have a good life. But I am very worried she will not be able to. All because of people trying to turn wild birds into pets. Please always call a rehabber. This should never have happened 💔

[rainyflock]

Crested pigeon update btw :] Alfie (Alfalfa) is on the left, and Antie (Antennae) is on the right! Alfie is the older male that I adopted last month after he was abandoned in an empty house when his former owners moved and left him behind. His mate was left behind too, but she did not make it to help arriving. The people who moved into the house were able to save Alfie, though ❤️

After seeing how withdrawn and sad Alfie was, I really wanted to find him another mate. These are not a super common bird at all where I live, but I ended up being so fortunate that a sweet 1yo girl was being rehomed a couple of hours from me. I'm not cleared to drive yet, but I was able to rope a friend into taking me, and we picked her up.

They are absolutely enamored with one another, I am so happy with how well they are settling in. They're just in my office for now but I will be building their attached aviary this week. I am so obsessed with them.

My fucking orbs!!!!

[rainyflock]

I have received a few messages wondering how the neglected mourning dove that I took in last month has been doing. I thought I'd take a couple of minutes to update everyone.

The first two pictures above are from the first few days she spent here. The most noticeable thing (in my opinion at least) is her absolutely terrible feather quality, likely due to years of malnutrition, lack of access to bathing, and an overgrown beak which made feather maintenance difficult.

These next two photos are from her second and third week here. We almost immediately switched her diet to a much more appropriate one, have also been giving her some additional vitamins for feather and overall health, trimmed her beak, and allow her to take baths as desired. There's not a huge difference yet, but we have lots of new feather growth coming in, and those feathers look sooo soft and healthy. I suspect in a few months she'll look like a completely different bird.

Her personality has also changed a lot!! At first she spent most of her time hiding and running whenever she saw me. But now she is SO inquisitive and constantly explores, even if I'm there. She loves toys, music, and videos (Pic 1 above, loves her bird feeder streams); naps in front of the heater vent (Pic 2); and trying new foods (Pic 3).

Her new friends will be arriving later this week, and we will try some supervised interactions after they settle in.

Thank you all so much for the positive energy you have been sending her way. Some birds who have experienced intense prolonged trauma like she has are never able to recover, but I am becoming more and more optimistic that there is a wonderful life still ahead of her ❤️

[rainyflock]

Weirdest best friends ever

Some background on these two because I love over-explaining myself on the internet:

I have had situations where people jump to conclusions based on single images of my birds and I would much rather set the record straight immediately:

You may have noticed that the pigeon in this pic, Harka, looks fucked. She is much better than she was, but had a very rough time as a baby, and recovery from developmental neglect is a long + rocky road. She will always be a house bird and is generally very frail, even at nearly eight months old. She is really afraid of other pigeons (and aggressive towards them as a result). Even my other dove Huron is a bit too pushy for her and she usually becomes uncomfortable with him.

Also important - there are no contagious issues of concern. Her feather quality and her size are due to inadequate nutrition while growing.

The dove in this pic, Daisy, lived with parrots for her entire life. Her deformed beak and missing toenails are the result of being housed with a quaker parrot, in a cage too small for a either species individually, with a single perch and food dish. She is on constant high alert, and is afraid of anyone that moves too quickly or comes at her too fast. Unfortunately, most of my birds are obnoxious little shits who aren't respectful of this anxiety which means they make a poor companion for her.

Generally speaking, I think pigeons and doves should really only be together with supervision, and some are not even cut out for that. A pigeon is much stronger and larger than a dove, I have seen situations where pigeons and doves paired up, and the dove was killed during a routine mate squabble. For the vast majority of birds, I do not consider it worth the risk!!!!!

But, these two are kind of the perfect companions. Harka is not afraid of Daisy because for once, someone is smaller than her, and doesn't want to hurt her! This is really her first ever friend! And Daisy enjoys her weird large friend that doesn't chase her or scream or bite her. I have frequently seen them preening one another, and they sleep cuddling most nights.

This friendship is something I monitor VERY closely because again - almost never worth the risk. These guys live in my office and I spend all day with them. Additionally, Daisy is flighted and Harka is not, so if Daisy wanted some space she could very easily get it. But I feel obligated to make this disclaimer because I really don't think most dove/pigeon pairs work and I consider this the exception, not the rule. And people love jumping to conclusions on the internet and I would never want that to lead to people trying this because they saw it online. Lol.

[rainyflock]

First nestling intake of 2026! This little baby mourning dove was dropped off early this morning, after the nest was displaced during tree maintenance last week. We were a little worried initially as he was inappropriately fed during his time in human care (please don't feed baby birds without guidance!!!!! 😭), but he seems to be doing fantastic this afternoon!

He has now been transferred to another rehabber who has a kiddo around the same age. Being raised with a conspecific (same species) will help these babies have a good shot at being released back into the wild once they are grown and independent! Wild birds raised singly in captivity often are more social with humans than their own kind, so it is fantastic that we were able to network a foster sibling for the remainder of his time in human care. Good luck, kiddo!

[rainyflock]

I mentioned poor Daisy's beak in the last post, here is a closer pic of what the poor girl is dealing with. Was told the beak "looked much worse, but he trimmed it for us right before we arrived". Genuinely suspect he did it with scissors based on all of the gouges in the keratin.

We are kind of shocked she could even eat, given that it was apparently much worse. We are hoping to get the poor little thing fixed up over the next few days, but wanted to let her settle and make sure there weren't any more immediate concerns. Poor lady.

[rainyflock]

Lil house sparrow male. Was found with a broken wing back as a fledgling in the summer and it was never repaired, and so he cannot fly. He's also been kept in a closet with zero stimulation since then, and was only surrendered after being caught by the family cat, so he's having a really rough go of it.

I am hopeful he will settle in with a bit of time ❤️

[rainyflock]

Been pretty down ever since we lost Kahvi, so here is some good news:

This week marks three years since I got a message from someone about a hurt starling. Manco had been hit by a car, and in the time he was stunned after the impact, had very literally frozen to the ground.

When he arrived, he had spinal damage, a broken shoulder, and a concussion. He was critically underweight, had to relearn how to walk and perch, struggled with seizures when startled for the first month or so, and also had to learn to trust me.

He's still flightless, but honestly you would never know everything he has been through from looking at him. He has overcome everything thrown at him and more.