Yesterday this baby bird was sitting on the ground outside my studio door, then when I went outdoors it flew up into our Greengage tree. He/she seemed to have no fear of me, and I was able to return indoors, fetch my camera, and take several reasonably close-up shots.
I'm not sure if you can see (you'll have to enlarge the pix), but the poor thing seems to be blind in one eye. Its left eye was permanently closed, and the right one open.
I suppose these things happen in nature just as they do with humans.
The beautiful little bird is a Stonechat; quite a rarity hereabouts.
23 comments:
What a beautiful bird. Shame about the eye.
Beautiful bird in beautiful green tree making beautiful pictures.
Looks like a male, and he's imprinted you as non-threatening. My wife helps orphaned fledglings sometimes and can go into the garden and call "BIRD" and they will fly to her --this is conditional upon supplementing their food sources. A half-blind bird presents survival problems so it would be prudent to keep the cats fat and lazy. Lovely brave creature, how ever long he lasts.
I love watching the birds in the garden. Bluetits are nesting again in the bird box, and we have robins that come to feed on the window feeder. I give them suet pellets, but they don't seem to like the beige ones, they get left….it's only since I put out the yellow and pink ones that the birds have come back!
Beautiful little bird - we occasionally see one here but, like you, it is a rarity. That eye might just be stuck down with 'gunge' and might clear after a good rain shower or similar - let's hope so. Someone posted a picture last week of a young chaffinch with what was either a very dirty claw, covered in what looked like grit, or a deformity. Sadly these creatures haven't got the sense to try and eliminate the problem.
We have had a very lame hen pheasant all winter - I suspect she was 'winged' by a passing car - but I now see that she is limping much less severely, so it must be healing at last.
A couple of years ago we had a blind lamb (blind in the sense that it didn't seem able to open its eyes). We took it off its mum (she had another one to look after too) and I bottle fed it and bathed its eyes twice a day and within a week or two it was fine. So let's hope your stonechat is the same.
What a lovely little bird!
I just love having birds come to my garden. I have a pair of butcher birds (awful name) who bring their babies year after year and ditto with a magpie family. The butcher birds are amazing with their aerial acrobatics, gracefully catching the glob of mince I throw high in the air.
Some of the magpies eat out of my hand and teach their young to do so as well.
I also have seed available for 4 types of parrots.
I'm careful not to make any of the birds dependent on me for food. They need to know how to survive in the wild. They are all just beautiful!
St Francis of Assisi reborn.
I hope you're right Weave. A sticky eye sounds quite plausible. Of course I'll never know!
After what Weave has said above, I'm now wondering if I shouldn't have been a bit more Franciscan; caught the bird and tried to open its eye. Maybe it was just stuck closed.
I'm still trying to figure 'the trousers of the foam'...... Any idea?
What lovely colouring. Maybe it was just sleeping one eye at a time.
Hmmmm.
Aww how sad :(
Jo in Auckland, NZ
Exactly , P. Neruda was a great poet.
Nature is both beautiful and cruel.
Men of the sea?
I have a nest just outside my window in my Swedish Ivy. I'm so careful when I water it and the mother bird eyes while I do. But she has come to trust me which is good for I plan on peeking in on those babies when they arrive.
Beautiful bird. I still have the feeders up and shall probably keep them up until month's end. It seems spring has finally sprung here at last, and they are finding other food more easily, as one feederful of seed lasts all day and into the next morning now.
Hopefully his eye is just stuck and will straighten out. What a beautiful baby! If you see him again, you could feed him tidbits of moist dog food from a toothpick, and he will probably continue to hang around and fly to you for treats as he grows up. It's happened with me several times after fostering orphaned fledglings!
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