(Untitled)

[tiamatschild]

So. I just hand caught and released a starling that had somehow gotten inside the house. (How? I honestly do not know. It must have come in one of the doors but I don't know when or how.) Its heart was beating so fast against my fingers, but once I had it it didn't fight me at all. It didn't even try to bite me. It just looked around while I held

Comments

[playswithworms]

Wow, how cool! Starlings are nifty little birds, and usually not bitey which is nice (unlike cardinals - those doobers can draw blood!)

[tiamatschild]

It was an EXPERIENCE. I've helped birds outside before, when they managed to get into a gap between the frame of an old, loose, sliding screen (the kind that open up and down) and then couldn't figure out getting out again - but that was when I was in the apartment without any animals around that might get uh. too curious. So all I did was open the screen and they figured out themselves! Never had to take them outside myself before.

I didn't know they weren't bitey! Cool! A general starling thing then, not just this one. I did know cardinals are bitey and - - - yeah. I was pleasantly surprised not to loose any flesh to the small dinosaur. I kind of went into the rescue expecting to need the disinfectant and band-aids after.

[playswithworms]

My mom rescued a baby starling once, many years ago, that had been hatched with no eyes. It always needed to be hand-fed, but it lived about ten years and kept her company while she worked from home doing medical transcription - eventually it learned to sing as well as any canary. They're considered invasive pests and they have had a negative impact on the bluebirds and other natives, but I've always been fond of them. The babies are obnoxious, which isn't necessarily a bad thing - so loud and demanding, compared to other baby birds (and most baby birds are loud and demanding to begin with). Definitely built to be survivors. One of the rehabbers I take birds to usually gets 50+ orphaned starlings every year, and when you walk into the starling room and you have 50 babies SCREEKING at you and opening their big yellow mouths, it's deafening! And rather alarming! :D

[tainry]

50+ starlings!
D8

[tainry]

Eeeee!

[tiamatschild]

It had pretty little speckles! And it's always weird when you hold birds, there's almost nothing there at all but little core of yielding heat in insulating fluff, I always feel so - reverent and cautious.

[tainry]

Yes!!! I've never held a really bitty one, though. I think the Brewer's blackbird at the science center where I worked was the smallest in my hands... But yes, core and fluff and...well the blackbird's wings were a vane-y sort of frame over the top. The raptors are a little different. Sharp ends...

<333333

[rose0mary]

New definition for "Catch And Release"!
Definitely good news for the starling.
Probably very thankful to be outside, and free!
Must have been something real special to hold a wild bird in the hands.

[tiamatschild]

It was pretty panicked and I don't blame it! I do think it was very relieved once it was outside: I stayed on the stoop and watched it and it sat in the top of that tree for a couple of minutes. It was too far away to see what it was doing, but I wouldn't be surprised if it took the moment to preen to chill out again. Personally, I almost fell over once the rush ended. Knees turned to jelly and everything. I'd been so scared it would get hurt!

It was a pretty powerful experience. I've held birds before, but I've never held one whose heart was going that fast, and I was really impressed when it looked at me. Turned its head all the different ways to check me out. I don't know how it had that presence of mind! If something so much larger grabbed me, I'm not sure I'd keep my head that well, especially if I was scared beforehand.