Birdy wants to fly (Day 2)

I woke up this morning, and went to check on Birdy. She was sitting down in her tissue box.

I quickly fed all the cats first. Nowadays, it’s three feeding venues. The kitchen first, then the Greystoke kittens and finally, Bunny’s Place.

Then came the bird-feeding session. I pounded some of the pellets and made a fresh batch with hot water. Bird-feeding 101 – it must be a fresh batch each time, never reuse.

The feeding session started off rather bumpily; it wasn’t easy pricing open Birdy’s mouth. Nevertheless, we managed to feed her eventually. Finally, what worked quite miraculously was to warm Birdy in the palm of both our hands, making a small opening of the head, and feed her from there. That worked! We managed to feed her quite a bit too and we were mighty pleased.

Perhaps half of it was wasted, but I’d say, we managed to feed her quite a bit. I texted Joey. Joey asked if Birdy was standing. I said no, Birdy was sitting down. Oh oh, that’s not good. Birdy should be standing up and chirping, but she was not doing either of them. Joey says it’s a sign of weakness. I should monitor to see if Birdy would stand up later. I should also chirp to Birdy.

Hmm….I don’t exactly know how to chirp so I just made a “chip-chip” sound to her.

Birdy defecated toward the end of the feed and from the colour of it, we are in the safe zone (I showed Joey). It’s not white, so that’s good enough.

That’s some water and some dry food, just in case she is ready to peck some on her own. Joey says that’s not enough tissue paper for warmth – there are gaps in the box. I should think “blanket” and fill the box with bunched up tissues, leaving as small a hole as possible for Birdy. She needs the warmth.

Yes, like this.

I was going to leave Birdy in the carrier upstairs, but Joey says it’s day time some brightness would help too. Birds are natural creatures, so go with Nature.

We decided to bring Birdy out to the garden.

We suspect Birdy fell down from these nests (holes) in this trunk while learning to take off to fly, but her wings aren’t strong enough yet, so she fell to the ground.

Joey said if it is safe enough, it is alright to leave Birdy’s carrier door open to see if her mum would come to look for her. We put the carrier up on a pillar and waited.

There were at least four different types of birds flying around and chirping. We narrowed it down to two species and finally, we think it’s this woodpecker-like bird. This must be the mum.

Birds were flying overhead, some coming down quite low, and chirping. I peeked many times and Birdy was standing up and looking outwards. Occasionally, she too chirped, probably in reply to her mum.

After about an hour, suddenly, Birdy flew out of her carrier but ended up gliding to the ground!

From the ground, she went up onto the grass. Okay, she does not look “weak” now, so that’s good. The food must have given her some energy.

She hopped around happily on the grass.

Then, she tried to go up this bench and ended up perching on side of the leg.

I asked Joey what we should do. Joey said we could either wait and see what happened, if the mum would come and if Joey could fly or we could bring her back to feed her and wait for her to be stronger to try again later in the evening or tomorrow.

It was almost 10am by now and time for another feed. Feeding sessions is every two hours. So husband went to catch her. He caught her, but as he was bringing her back, she flew off again.

Again, it was just low level flying, and she glided out of the gate to the road!

Oh no….luckily there were no cars. So, we opened the gate, and husband went out and managed to catch her again. Back to the carrier!

I had cleaned to ensure the tissue box is lined with fresh and clean tissues. There was faeces – okay, the colour is fine.

Birdy was brought back for another round of feeding. This time, she was able to open her mouth wider too. Feeding took about half an hour this round.

Joey said we could put a twig across in the carrier so that she could perch on it. I finally put Birdy back to the tissue box, and the carrier is now upstairs in our bedroom, to let her rest safely.

Smurfy and Tabs tried to help, of course.

The next feeding session will be at 12noon.

Please wish us luck.