In my last post, it was a wood pigeon that now lives with me. This time, it’s a young blackbird. Early last night, it likely perched on a tree and got stuck there. I spotted it this morning through the window and initially thought it might be some kind of courtship behaviour since it flapped its wings occasionally but didn’t fly away (I’m not very familiar with blackbirds). Upon closer inspection, I realised it was hanging upside down, probably the entire night.

I went outside and saw that its legs were completely entangled in some string, which was also wrapped around the branch. The tree had to be bent forcefully, and the bird was carefully freed with a small pair of scissors. It was rather cold and kept closing its eyes, but it was still breathing. Since blackbirds are small, I was able to warm it up, took it home, and placed it in a cage.

At first, it was so exhausted that it couldn’t even stand and just slept. Now, it’s doing better. It’s standing, sometimes sleeping, but often has its eyes open, looking around. It has plenty of food and water and seems to be on the road to recovery. Some time it's also eating. Hopefully, I’ll be able to release it back into the wild soon. I will wait till it is more vital and at least ate enough.

This brings me to an important appeal to everyone reading this:

Please don’t throw anything with strings or threads away outdoors.

You often see pigeons with their feet tangled in various threads or even dental floss. It doesn’t just affect pigeons; it can harm all birds. What happened to the blackbird here is one possibility, but in many cases, the string cuts off circulation, causing parts to die off. I once rescued a pigeon in such a condition; its foot had already become necrotic and fallen off (it survived and was released)