Unexpected Bird Rescue

Time for a heartwarming story to ease you into your weekend. So my son Gabriel calls me as I am getting my gas station coffee on the way into work and tells me there is an injured bird at his school that is flapping about in the dirt with what appears to be an injured leg. He sends me a blurry picture of a dark brown bird that looks vaguely like a grackle. I say that’s sad, but you should leave it be and let nature take its course. He is displeased with my answer and tells me I should come get it. I say I have a 7:30 am meeting so, no. Fast forward 30 minutes and I get a text while I am in said meeting in which he informs me that he is now carrying the injured bird in a cardboard box at school and that I should really come get it. I make various annoyed noises and go get the bird.

I took the box without looking inside and set it in the garage while I prepared our old parakeet cage (RIP Kiwi) for its new tenant. I finally look in the box a bit more carefully and am surprised to see a very exhausted looking brownish red bird with a beautiful pattern of black and white feathers on its abdomen. This is not a grackle. In fact, I had never even seen this bird in any of my wanderings throughout the area, so I was very intrigued.

It is laying on its side and breathing heavily as I put in the cage and I don’t have much hope it will live long, but at least it can be comfortable. I put some water in the cage along with some meal worms and one of Kiwi’s left-over seed sticks. It halfheartedly pecks at my hand when I offer it some water and I figure that’s sort of a good sign. I head back to work, not feeling very optimistic.

I had gotten the name of a local vet who also does wild bird rehabilitation, so I email her and, as I wait for a reply, start to investigate what kind of bird my son had found. With the help of my co-worker I find out that our feathery friend is an Virginia rail. According to Wikipedia these chicken like marsh birds remain fairly common despite continuing loss of habitat but are secretive by nature and more often heard than seen. Here’s a link to the Virginia rail Cornell lab page https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Virginia_Rail/id

Eventually the Virginia rail is sitting up (I had my daughter check on it throughout the day) and is sleeping upright when I come home that evening. It looks better since it is sitting up now and not laying on its side. I feel slightly encouraged, but still unsure if it will make it through the night. The vet office had gotten back to me and let me know that I could bring the bird in in the morning.

In the morning I am pleased to see the Virginia rail still sitting upright and looking at me with alert eyes. The bird gets agitated when I reach in to try to offer it water, so I just leave it be and cover the cage and get it into the car.

The bird is now in the knowledgeable hands of the folks at Animal Kingdom Veterinary Hospital here in Las Vegas which has a Licensed Wildlife Rehabilitator on staff. I hope to hear from them in regard to the progress of this beautiful bird and am pleased that my son insisted on helping another living thing. I am glad he didn’t give up on this guy and hopefully this bird will be able to fully recover and make it back home soon.