The other day I happened to be hanging around the house, which is rare, and heard a loud "thud". Prior to the thud I heard a lot of cardinal twitters outside my dining room windows .
Let me say that we have many cardinals around here, and cardinals have multiple nests/families throughout the year. That morning I noticed the adult cardinals feeding the grown babies suet from our suet feeder. The grown babies always love to be fed, even though they are adults themselves, and they tweet like little babies.
After the "thud" I found this grown male baby cardinal laying on the windowsill. Evidently he flew into the window. Hard. He was shaking, his eyes wouldn't focus, his toes were curled up into a fist. I didn't think he was going to make it.
The little cardinal laid out on the window sill for quite a few hours. I checked on him about every 30 minutes and could see him breathing. I made sure my inside cats didn't notice him out there so they wouldn't torment him by staring at him through the window. The outside cats weren't around, either.
When it started to get dark out, I figured the little guy had to be checked out. He couldn't stay out there all night, the night animals would find him, and he'd be blind in the dark and couldn't attempt to fly to safety. If he could even fly.
He was still breathing. I tapped on the window, and to my surprise he was able to focus his eyes on me then! He was coming around! He still didn't fly away, but it appeared he was waking up, coming out of his stupor. He looked all around, confused as to why he was laying on the windowsill. After a few minutes he still laid there, and the sun was setting fast. If he could fly, he had to attempt it immediately before it got too dark out. Darkness comes upon us fast when the sun sets.
And so I started opening the window. I was going to put him in a little cage or something where he could get some rehab until he was able to fly and go free. By all means, I certainly didn't want to have a cardinal in the house, but I couldn't let the little guy just lay there and be eaten by an owl overnight.
The little cardinal wanted nothing to do with me! As I opened the window, he immediately looked around, and with a loud baby cardinal twitter, he flew to the tree where the cardinals live! He was better! He didn't fly in a straight line, but he flew well enough to make it. He left behind a huge poop on the windowsill.
The little cardinal boy lived to see another day! I bet he had a headache!
8 comments:
LOL.
Glad to hear he survived his encounter with the window!
Boy, you had my heart beating fast reading through to see if he made it . . . and he did! Hip hip hooray!
LindaG - I was glad, too!
CAGrammy - Yes, this story has a happy ending! You know many of my farm stories don't always have happy endings!
~Lynn
I am glad he made it to the tree. He must have really flew hard into that window. I have a Meadowlark that lives in my front yard. I call him "that walkin bird." He just walks around and spends all day under the trees, he can fly but not very far. He doesn't have any tail feathers.
I know he roosts in the trees but is content to just walk around and he stays.
It is always so interesting to watch the drama that goes on all of the time.
I'm glad that the bird made it out alive. It's always hard to tell if they are ok.
FG - yes, there's always drama going on, isn't there! Most people don't slow down and notice what goes on around them. Your walkin bird sounds cool! He adds personality to your home!
JA - I'm glad he made it, too. I didn't want to disturb the little thing till I had to, but when it got dark, it was time to see what was going on.
~Lynn
Happy cardinal boy made it. I had a similar thing happen one winter with a mourning dove. It hit the window hard with a thud. I waited a while and decided to go outside and scoop him up and put him in a cardboard box for the night. When I approached, he blinked at me and flew off. Phew!
Glad the cardinal is okay. Birds are often stunned fro hours after a window strike. If you can keep them safe and warm afterwards, they usually recover. Poor little guy! Love the pics.
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