Baby wood pogeon

Hi. I’m in Peterborough. We’ve rescued a baby wood pigeon from our cat who was playing with it! It has a small red spot on its back but otherwise appears uninjured. There are several tall trees at the back of our garden and we presume it fell from a nest in one of them (our cat had had another baby a little earlier, who we found too late). There are two pairs of wood pigeons who are always around in our garden but we haven’t seen any of them since finding the baby. We’ve made a temporary nest for it in a small box and hung it in a tree - we don’t know where the actual nest is and susoect it’s too high for us to reach anyway - but we’re not very hopeful that the parent will find it. We’ve no idea what else to do and are afraid it will die. Any advice or help very welcome.

  • Hi Moyra....The bacteria in cat saliva are toxic to birds, so even if a cat does not immediately kill a bird, its bite often leads to infection and death so that red spot could be from the cat. IMO and I am no expert but I have had a few baby woodpigeons in the garden.., one made it back up to its nest after a day or two and one was just too young to be out the nest and sadly died but best thing to do is KEEP the Cat in as much as possible during this time of year to give fledglings the best possible chance. If the pigeon is still in the make shift nest I would return it to the ground so the parents can see it...they will need to feed it still if it can't fly yet...It needs its parents crop milk so you can't even help feed it at this crucial time. Hopefully others shall be able to offer more helpful information.
  • Linda has given you all the relevant advice but if you want more then look here to find help in your area ... helpwildlife.co.uk/.../