Um... help?

[stillane]

Any of you know anything about wild bird rescue?

No, I'm not dipping into the vicodin. Well, okay, I did take one, and I am a little dizzy just now, but there is also a form of waterfowl residing in my living room. Dad came home this evening with a temporary addition to the menagerie, and now I'm trying to figure out how best to care for it (him? her?).

The little guy looks a little something like this, which is what I'm assuming he is until further notice. He's not presenting with any obvious injuries; Dad was just concerned because he was hopping around on the road, and there are enough feral cats, etc. around here that his chances of making it to morning weren't so hot.

Barring other information coming to light, I'm planning to thaw some fish/shrimp and offer him a little, and hopefully get in touch with someone in Fish & Game or something tomorrow. Any other ideas? Anything I absolutely shouldn't do upon pain of death?

Any of you know who a Pennsylvanian should call in these circumstances?

Comments

[mz-bstone.livejournal.com]

Waterfowl eat mostly bugs, and that beak looks like a bug-eatin' beak. You probably have a rehab or wild bird centre somewhere in your region, if not your town/city, so calling them would be your best bet for care.

http://www.rehabitat.org/rehabilitators.htm

That's a place to start.

My sister did bird rehab -- they generally do best with quiet/isolation. Water's a good staple.

B

[stillane.livejournal.com]

I think you may be right about the bug-eatin' beak. He doesn't seem terribly amused by the shrimp, which is about as close as we could get to anything listed as being in their diet. We think he poked at some dried corn, however, so at least he's getting some sustenance. I wound up putting a call in to one of the people on that list you linked me to, and now we're just waiting to hear back.

At the moment, the bird is (happily? can you really tell with one of these guys?) splashing around in the little pool we set up for him, and preening occasionally. So long as he's apparently content, we're counting everything as okay and holding out for the experts.

Thanks so much for the help!