What to Do with Abandoned Wild Birds

Just before I left the UK to return to Brazil this week I got a call from an old friend.  I have just spent the most mrvellous few weeks on assignment in my hometown.  I met lots of friends I was in school with and spent the most time in the UK that I have spent in 13 years.

One of the friends that I met lives locally with her sisters. We hadn't seen each other for years.  Anyway, knowing my background sheasked what to do with an abandoned, injured Magpie.  Her call raised a number of issues. 

• First, giving advice over the telefone.  Clinical cases need to be seen.

Because the bird was alone, she assumed it was an inexperienced chick or first-year bird that had perhaps fallen from its nest and could not be found by its  mother.  Naturalists will tell you this is seldom the case and that

• the bird should be left alone because usually its parents will return to feed it. 

• If injured, then that is a different matter and the bird should be taken to a vet.

• If the bird has already been picked up and removed from where you found it, and if it is uninjured, take it back where you found it in good time because its parents may be looking for it.

• In the UK it could be a pest species, but that issue is beyond the scope of this article.

Much of the time people in the UK find tawny owl chicks and the above guidelenes appy in such cases.