Hello, I need some help with a bird I found. Yesterday evening, I came across a Common Blackbird near my house. It couldn’t fly at all, only climb and hop. I brought it inside because it was dark outside and there are many cats in the area, and I didn’t want it to be in danger. I bought some worms that the pet shop advisor recommended and gave them to the bird. It liked them and ate, but I don’t think it’s drinking much. I only saw it drink once, but maybe it does when I’m not around.I tried to check it as best as I could to see if anything seemed off. I checked its feathers, and everything looks fine. I tried to spread them to see if it could, and it allowed me to do so. Both wings have an equal amount of feathers, so it doesn’t look like anything is missing. I’ve checked everything that I can, though I don’t know much about birds, and everything seems normal, except that sometimes when it tries to jump from my hand to the perch I set up for it (my hand isn’t very high), it seems to fall forward and stay stuck in that position for a few seconds. It looks like it has some trouble with its balance.
Here are some pictures of the bird. The first two were taken outside, and the last one was taken inside. In the last one, the bird is completely straight, which makes me think it might be an adult or a young adult. I was also wondering if it could be aledgling that’s just not ready to fly yet. I looked online, but it doesn’t quite look like one. However, I’m not very experienced with birds.I tried to call the local wildlife rescue, but they said they don’t handle injured found animals. I’m not sure what else to do other than give it food, water, and rest. If necessary, I’ll take it to the vet. I just hope it’s nothing serious and that it just needs some time and energy to recover. If anyone has any advice, please share—it would be very helpful. Thank you very much!
Hi there, well done for rescuing the bird, it looks like an adult female blackbird that has been injured somehow, please don't take it to a vet unless they are bird or wildlife specialists as they will more than likely put it down I'm afraid keep doing what you are doing if you can and keep it in a warm quiet room for a few more days feeding it some fruit such as chopped apples and blueberries plus the mealworms you have should be ok for now and see if it recovers and begins to fly for you, best of luck with it and do let us know how you get on when she is flying strongly she can be released where you found her as she more than likely knows the area.
Re advice, for sexing and aging, if it is brown, female…. black, male….and brown and black 1st Winter male…….
re looking after birds, I wouldn’t risk handling wild birds due to avian flu and other diseases. As this has been done, it is very much down to what you would like to do as a bird that can’t fly is unlikely to be able to unless it is stunned from hitting a window for example.