We have loads of evening grosbeaks at our feeder lately. Despite their name, they're especially active in the early morning, but we get them throughout the day.
Yesterday I noticed one bird sitting funny.
I've seen that position before. The poor thing has a broken leg. That must hurt.
His wings work fine, so at least he has a food source to keep him going.
He could even compete with quail.
But it's hard to watch him struggle.
I don't know if birds can heal from a broken leg in the wild, but at least he won't starve.
A few years back, I had a Lesser Goldfinch visit our feeder with a Redwood cone firmly clamped onto her little leg. She was a regular at the feeder for about two weeks. Who knows how the heck she managed to do that? One day a little goldfinch showed up missing her leg. I'm assuming it's the same little gal. Saw her on and off for a month or so. Never seemed sick. The following year we had a one-legged goldfinch hanging out at the feeder. Same? I'm thinking she was.
ReplyDeletePatrice, I had this happen with a pet quail once: the leg broke, then dried up, then fell off. I ended up separating her from the others to make sure she got food and water but she managed to live out her complete life span, about 2 years, most of that with one leg.
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