I found a small bird outside my home earlier today. It wasn't moving at all. When I gently touched it, it opened its eyes but didn't struggle or try to fly away. It was about to rain and there are a lot of stray cats and dogs around, so I brought it inside for safety.

Here is its current situation and behavior:

• Appearance: No visible physical injuries. It can walk slightly, but mostly just stays still.

• Behavior: It has been sleeping for hours. When I touch it, it wakes up briefly, looks around, but doesn't really do anything or try to escape.

• Elimination: It is pooping from time to time.

• Current Setup: I currently have it in a ventilated shoebox in a quiet area. I initially left some biscuit crumbs and water in there with it.

I'm really worried about it. Could it be in shock, sick, or suffering from a window strike? What could be wrong with it, and what are the best next steps I should take to give it a chance to recover?

I found this bird stuck in a net outside. I think its a fledgeling mockingbird and it seemed hurt. I couldnt tell if its wing/leg was injured in the netting so I took it home and I have it in a shoebox and im planning to take it to a wildlife rehab tomorrow but im wondering if I should have left it outside the net and waited for its mom to come back.

Is the pacing back and forth a sign of stress?
He paces side to side in his perch. Also, why would it be rubbing its head and back against the glass? I didn’t really catch these things on film very well but here’s an rough idea…
I named him professor fruit loop.

My friend and I recently spotted this wild mallard duck at the beach. Sadly, the one above was the only decent picture we were able to get, because it was running around and quickly flew away with a group of other ducks.

To us, it looked like the feathers on the body were partially the colour of a female mallard duck, while the head and back are clearly male colors. It didn't behave or look noticeably weird otherwise, so we were wondering if there was a genetic mutation, causing the odd colour.

I have come across multiple kinds of birds where some individuals are intersex and was wondering if this might be the case here, too. Does it happen commonly in mallard ducks?

I will try to answer questions, if it helps!

I just find this so interesting! What is your take on this duck?

Hello, I learned at some point how the Yellow-breasted Chat was once considered a warbler (Parulidae) and was changed out of that and determined to be more closely related to blackbirds (Icteridae). The wikipedia page and even genus name heavily imply it's part of the blackbird family, yet in the Sibley's app, it's not with the rest of them, and when you Google what family it's a part of, it says it has its own single-species family but then lists that family as Icteridae (sometimes spelled Icteriidae). What on earth is going on with the classification of this poor fella?? 😂

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Sorry if this is the wrong sub. We had an uninjured fledgling (sparrow?) fall into our flat twice yesterday, and we are trying to keep it alive but need some advice.

We live in the UK in a block of flats. There seems to be a nest of birds somewhere high on the roof, but we cannot see them or access a tall enough ladder to check. This fledgling found a hole somewhere and fell into our flat.

We caught it, found a small box and put it back on the roof, but within an hour they had fallen back into our flat. We returned it to the roof in a bigger box. We periodically watched it to see if it was being fed, but didn't see any parent birds feeding it or going near the box. It was chirping all day. We didn't want to put it on the ground since it's just a big carpark which is frequented by cats and foxes, and it can only hop a little.

By the evening, we were worried it had been rejected since it was still loud, and there were a lot of seagulls and magpies about, so we took it inside and contacted a wildlife rehabilitation centre. They are still searching for a volunteer near us to handle the bird. We fed it some blueberries (rehab seemed ok with us doing this) which it seemed to eat with no problems and survived the night.

Now we are wondering whether to try again placing it back on the roof or to find some appropriate food to feed it. We want the best chances of survival and to reduce our interference.

Any advice is appreciated!

A pair of house finches nested in my front-door wreath. The chicks hatched 11 days ago. One was dead on the ground yesterday, but the other two looked healthy, mostly feathered with just a little down left.

Today the nest was suddenly empty. It’s still perfectly intact with no feathers, blood, or signs of disturbance. I also saw the male and female perched together on a nearby power line afterward.

Is it possible they fledged this early, or is a predator more likely? If they fledged, what signs can I look out for?

Photo is what they looked like yesterday

Hello everyone! I'm working on a archaeological study of two whistles made out of bird ulnas. As of the moment, I know as a fact the artifacts have been constructed on ulnas as the quill knobs are clearly visible. Also, they are quite large, with over 18 cm or 7 inches in lenght. I would like to know if anyone knows of an avian database that includes ulna measurements as a reference, so that I could advance on identifying the species on which these whistles were made. Location is Argentina, close to the Chaco. Thanks!!

This morning I saw a sparrow land on my patio and proceeded to smack a caterpillar(?) on the pavement for at least 2 minutes before flying off with it. Not really sure what bug it was, I didnt want to spook the bird by getting close to the window.

Can anyone explain this behavior? I'm curious if the bird was playing around or if this is how they eat bugs? Located in Southern Ontario.

It seems the bluebirds who have been nesting in our fence mounted birdhouse and the Mockingbirds who nest in the tree in the next door neighbor's yard have become allies. They hang out at our bird feeder together, the four of them will be foraging in our grass at the same time, they sit on the fence relatively near each other, and were chasing off a local squirrel together the other day.

Seems fairly odd considering how mockingbirds and bluebirds usually interact.

Before I get into this, let me give you a bit of background on the situation at hand.
For years we’ve had house finches nesting above our bay window. I always loved waking up in the morning and hearing the sounds of tiny chirps and little scuttling noises. Those finches were practically family. They had no fear of us and we always loved hearing them.
This spring, the male finch was unusually loud, but I shrugged it off, figuring he was just affirming his territory. However, around June I happened to be out front (where the bay window is) and noticed a bird had pulled our siding out and filled it with a grass nest. Ok, definitely not the finches. I kept an eye on the nest for a while until I finally saw a bird sticking its head out. I was able to identify it as a house sparrow. I didn’t know much about the bird so I just let it be, not wanting to disturb the nest. Then it started chirping non-stop, from 6am until sunset. Ok, that’s annoying, but a bird is going to chirp.
But then I noticed I wasn’t hearing my finches anymore. So I finally did some reading on the species and found out how invasive they are, and how aggressive they are with native species. We immediately removed the nest (there was no eggs) cleaned the siding so no scent would linger (as was recommended by extensive google searches on this bird) and screwed the siding back in place (we were taking no chances)
Two days later I hear scuttling above the bay window. I go over to look and out flies a male and a female house sparrow. So clearly they drove the finches off. We cleared out the nest (and yep: the finch nest was totally gone and it was a wad of messy grass up there) and blocked it off with metal mesh. That was a week ago
We’ve had no bird food out since before this started (laziness on restocking was a big factor, but we restocked 2 weeks ago and haven’t put any out due to this sparrow). This bird is still sticking around, chirping incessantly. Now, I’ve spent a ton of time reading on this, even coming across 2-4 year old posts in this subreddit. We’ve bought safflower seed, but I’ve been terrified of putting it out because I don’t want to do anything that will encourage this sparrow to stick around. I’ve seen in my research that trapping, Mylar strips, etc all recommended.

My concerns: out back under our sunroom is a wren nest, he’s another well known fellow that’s been nesting there for a few years. I’ve heard no tiny chirps from that area. I did check the spot and the nest hasn’t been tampered with, and I’m not fully certain the sparrow could get in there. Right now he seems still zoned in on that bay window… but I’m worried he will find the wren nest. I’ve started chasing the sparrow off when I see it, sometimes even having to resort to a water sprinkler. I can’t imagine at this point he doesn’t realize his spot is blocked off (it can’t be pulled out, we checked). Yesterday it did its territorial chirp in the morning and disappeared the rest of the day after 7am. Today it doesn’t seem to be moving on and has been chirping all morning (started at 6, it’s 9 now) I hear NO other birds anymore which is massively concerning. Our property usually had frequent birdsong coming from the trees, even when we were slow on refilling the feed. They would still stick around to remind us to feed them lol. But I feel this overly aggressive male is driving everyone else off. I haven’t seen his female at all recently.

I’m in a residential area in NY if this helps. I’d like to add we’ve NEVER had this issue before. I’ve never even heard this bird before. And he seems to be the only one from what I’ve seen (minus his female who again, has since abandoned him)

In conclusion, my main questions that I haven’t really been able to find solid answers for in my research is this:
— Will the house sparrow move off on its own after it realizes its spot can’t be used? (We haven’t found any signs of new building elsewhere yet)
— Is finding ways to chase it off a good idea? Will that speed up its departure or is it better to ignore it and let it figure out on its own that it can’t build here? It seems to be expanding the area from which it’s chirping from, but that could be because I’ve been chasing it. It’s still largely sticking close to the property though. However recently I have heard it occasionally in the woods across the road… so maybe it’s moving away slowly?
— Should I put out meat to draw in crows? Will that drive him off?
— Will putting out the safflower encourage him to stick around or will drawing in more birds hasten his departure?
— Honestly any other advice you may have is welcome. I understand from my reading that trapping and in some cases euthanizing is often suggested, but I feel there’s a moral issue with releasing it elsewhere, to plague other birds that didn’t ask for that.

I don’t know, as I’m typing this I hear it back on the power line, which is not far from the bay window. It keeps going from there, to the trees at opposite ends of where the window is, to the roof, to the porch light… I really need some answers though because he’s already ruined my finches spot. I’m hoping if I can get it to leave maybe next spring I can open that spot above the bay window for the finches again. I really miss hearing them. I’ve just never dealt with anything like this before. It’s exhausting. I would’ve thought it would’ve moved on by now since the nesting spot isn’t usable 😕

And lastly, I know you guys get a lot of posts regarding house sparrows, and are probably a little tired of it lol. I tried very hard to do extensive reading to see if there were solid answers to these questions elsewhere before posting. But there’s a lot of information out there and I could have definitely missed something. So if any of these are repeated questions, I apologize. Thank you so much.

I tried watching among the branches of the trees with a thermal monocular, but I found nothing other than three wild rabbits running among the meadow and one hedgehog.

BUT NO BIRDS!

I thought they used to sleep on trees but apparently they don't. Or at least they don't choose my local park trees.🙂

I wonder if maybe they go somewhere else they think is more safe?

Any suggestions?

I live in a medium sized city (400k inhabitants), but as you can see we have fauna and a lot of parks and green areas. I live in Europe if it may help.

Thanks in advance!

What can be done? Fell out of nest???

TLDR: I have been raising nestling swallows for the last 4 days after the rescues near me refused to take them in.

I need advice on how to help them learn to hunt and eventually be able to fly out and survive on their own.

Last Friday the side of a swallow nest at my job broke off causing these two babies to fall out. To my estimation they were 7-9 days old when they fell. Since the nest was no longer salvagable and I read that swallows wont feed their babies if they're on the ground I called the local rescues and "Animal Ambulace" but they refused to take them in. They said I should just leave them on the ground and that they'd fly away soon. No matter how I tried to explain that they could not fly yet and were barely even feathered, they swore up and down that they would fly away within the day.

So I took them home.

I have been feeding and raising these babies for the last 4 days and they have gotten stronger and more energetic by the day. They eat, sleep and poop well and I am very happy with how they are doing, they are little survivors!

I have been feeding them freshly killed spiders, house flies, moths, headless mealworms and about any non poisonous insect I could find. All killed right before feeding of course. I have supplemented this with a very tiny amount of wet catfood and egg yolk and I have dipped all food in a diluted calcium solution for their bones.

Now that they are almost feathered I want to prepare for how I teach them to fly, hunt and live on their own. I am planning on putting them in an old rat cage, 80 x 60 x 100cm, with fleece tightly lining the sides to protect their wings. I will be building their "nest" on the bottom and I'll be putting up tiny perches for them to rest and climb on while they try out their wings.

I am going to a special fishing store today to buy fly larve and hatching those so I have "fresh" flies for them to learn how to hunt.

I just want some advice to be honest, I have no idea what I'm doing and the learning curve has been very steep and fast. I dont want to fuck this up after keeping them alive for so long. I am unable to ask advice from any rescues or professionals near me since its very illegal to keep swallows since they are a protected species in my country. Does anybody here have advice?

I'm looking for a resource to find pictures of bird tracks by species. Does anyone here know if an exhaustive resource exists? The ones I've found tend to be centred on North America and don't include the bird I'm looking for, which is the Javan myna. I'd really like to know their footprint patterns across their different gaits (hopping, walking etc).

Any help would be appreciated!

I just found an injured bird. It has a large hole around its hip. I can see organs, they do not look injured but obviously the hole is not good. What can i do ?? Its in a large box now, safe with towels but should I bandage it?? It was breathing with its eyes closed but now it opened them and started flapping its wings. I want to save it or at least ease its suffering as it dies

I have found a nestling and his parents didn't want him so we took him in and started feeding him flies. We have run out of flies, what should we feed him instead?

Hi all! Our local great horned owlets fledged in April and since then have been roosting nearby with mom and dad. Up until 2 weeks ago mom kept a neurotically close eye on them, perching within visual contact of both all day long and giving anyone who walks by the death glare. (Dad would roost alone away from them and is extraordinarily chill.. maybe too chill? Like, "clack if you need me").

However, 2 weeks ago mom started being being harassed by ravens. After a few days of this, she and dad disappeared and have not been seen since. Babies continue to roost in the same area and do their nighttime beg-squacks.

Will babies be OK? Are they still being fed? All my reading says that great horned owls feed their babies until Sept or Oct so they can gradually learn to hunt. Is roosting apart at this stage normal behavior?

(Photo from March in the nest, showing mama owl's hyperprotective side!)