Help - Injured Bird in Garden now

There is an injured bird (jackdaw I think) in my back garden. When I let the dogs out this morning, they were playing with it and the other birds created a big racket, which is what alerted me to what was going on.

I brought the dogs in until a few minutes ago. Before I let them out the second time, the bird had gone, so I assumed a cat had taken it.

But as soon as the dogs when out, they found the bird again and started playing with it so he's alive, but not able to fly. The other birds all started the same racket again.

I have the dogs in now again. The poor bird is still lying outside half-alive.

Please any advice on what I should do??

Unless you want to pay the vet bills i'd put the bird out of it's misery.

Agree re putting it out of its misery, but I wouldn't be able to do that.

I brought one down to the vet last year and was not charged for it. As you have two dogs you are probably paying the vet on a regular basis so I'm fairly sure they will do you a favour. Would be very bad for their rep if they did not either way.

Could you pick up the bird and put him into a box or something and bring him into your house and maybe after awhile he'll come round. Keep the box covered but let air in and see what happens. Last week I had an injured thrush and took him in but when I let him back out he was still unable to fly but shuffled off into the shrubs He was still around the garden for a couple of days getting livelier and then I did'nt see him anymore. I only hope he eventually took off safely. Like you I had to keep in the dogs and they were'nt impressed!

Rang vet, they just said to put bird in shoe box and out of reach of dogs to die naturally.

Wish I could kill bird myself, but I can't. Thinking of letting dogs back out to deal with it.

Rois said:

Thinking of letting dogs back out to deal with it.

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This post will be deleted if not edited immediately no!

Try the shoebox thing as the vet said. But give it ventilation, a little food and check on it in a day or two - you might be surprised.

Had a similar situation many years ago - after a few days the bird simply dusted itself down and flew away.

I know i said to put it out of it's misery, but like others i'd never be able to do it myself. Not sure i could let the dogs out to do it for me either.

Is there anyone around you know that could do this? It is kinder in the long run. Letting the bird die naturally could take a while depending on how injured he is.

If there was anyway to save the bird i would take it to the vets, but it's going to be impossible to find this out.

Just leave the bird back out and let nature takes it course what ever that may be.

That sounds a bit harsh from the vet, I wouldn't be impressed to be honest. I little shot of something from the vet and in would be over in seconds.

Asked my lodger (who is still in bed!) to help - he won't do anything.

Ok my nephew is on his way over, we'll take bird down to vet.

Thanks for advice.

Bird not badly injured, had moved again into the undergrowth. Had to let the dogs out to flush him out first.

My nephew picked him up, he was covered in down which we removed, then he upped and flew away!!

bloody good job you didn't break it's neck as he seems to be fine now.

I couldn't have killed him. Think he must have fallen out of nest (cause of the down), this prevented him from flying. He was squawking at the dogs so was feisty enough.

He should be fine now mercifully, his family stayed around all day, so they'll look after him now.

I've discovered that birds now have grit in their sh*t.....more paintwork damage done to my car.....

Happy ending Rois.

i'm glad the bird was ok.

it's amazing how the flock will make such a racket when one of them is under threat. I saw a crow knocked down on the road once. He couldn't move and there was a lot of traffic. Crows kept gathering on the powerlines along the road kicking up an awful racket. They stayed there until he died about half an hour later. It was awful to watch.

Thanks guys.

Yes the birds family (about 10 of them) stayed in the garden all day. They kept swooping down at the dogs for the brief time that they were out - as if they were going to attack the dogs.

The noise the birds made was incredible, they're obviously very protective.

TBH I don't think the dogs would have killed the bird (as they're labrador retrievers and bred to retrieve without damaging birds) - all they wanted to do was play with it, but the poor bird would have been in shock and I thought this might kill him, rather than any physical injury.