Bird Strike

Birds and windows don’t mix. This is a downside of bringing them close to our house which has a large number of windows. So we hear birds hitting our windows more than you might imagine. It tends to be worse in the fall when the migratory ones come back through. Most of the time, the contact is light and the bird can change direction and fly off.

But we have to check each one because sometimes we end up with a dazed bird on our porch. Sadly, there are times when the strike is fatal. That is always a downer. I know nature produces in abundance to allow for losses but I can’t help but be sad when you have a dead bird on your porch. The young ones are harder to take even though we know that most of our resident birds produce young each year.

This morning it was a Flicker (pictured above). When I saw him on the porch with his neck in an awkward position, I figured it was the end. He was still breathing when I went out to check but I’ve had cases where the neck is broken and they are taking their last breaths. Fortunately, that was not the case here because he was able to get his head in the correct position and hold it there.

Normally, after an impact like that, it takes a few minutes for them to get over the shock and fly on. This one needed some extra time. At one point, I actually moved him out of the sun and into the shade and he didn’t seem to care at all that I was picking him up. That didn’t seem like a good sign and I started to wonder where the nearest wildlife rehab place was and if they would be open on a Sunday afternoon.

I kept checking and going outside to talk to him. OK, I talk to the birds and animals around our house. Its just a thing I do. He showed no signs of wanting to move but was also not sitting in any sort of an awkward way that might indicate a broken wing.

Eventually, after about 30 minutes, when I went out to check on him, he hopped away from me and towards the end of the porch. At first I was afraid he was just going to hop right off the porch and fall into the bushes and I’d have to get him out somehow. But he just sat there for another minute or so and then flew off into the trees.

So the story had a happy ending and that’s always good.