Birds

Mastering A Chough

If you find a Chough chick on the ground keep away from it. Find out whether its parents are still feeding it, as  bird parents often feed the chick even after it has left the nest. However if the chick has fallen off the nest before learning how to fly it will certainly be easy prey for predators. In this case you can pick it up, look after it and to an extent, master it. If a Chough is domesticated it can come to cherish you and although it will eventually leave to live in the wild it will often come back to see you.

Looking After The Chick

1- Place the chick in a big, wide cage inside a calm room (if a bird is ever in a cage it should always be big).

2-Make a small nest out of twigs, grass and feathers.

3-Feed the chough chick with small balls made out of earthworms, red meat or a mixture of rice, vegetables and tinned food for dogs or cats.

4-Chicks eat very often but in small quantities, be careful with indigestions. 

5-Don´t force the chick to drink, initially there will be enough water in the chick´s food for it to live.

6-Once the chick´s movements are firm and steady place a bowl of water within its reach. 

7-Incite the chick to peck as soon as possible so that it´ll learn how to look and search for its food. 

8-Always behave calmly around the chough chick and speak to it sweetly and soothingly so that it´ll recognise your voice.

9-Don´t try and touch the chick at first, let it get used to your presence and its new surroundings.

10-Soon, it´ll be the chick who comes to you and who will accept physical contact.

11-Bird chicks sleep a lot, don´t disturb your chough chick while it rests.

Adult Life 

1-As soon as the chough can move around the cage let it out of the cage so it can learn how to fly on its own. 

2-Always leave the cage door open so that the chough can return to the cage and exit it as it pleases.

3-Choughs have an incredible capacity for learning new things, including coming to you when you call it or recognising the sound of your family car.       

4-Be careful, Choughs, like many other animals,are very curious, and may explore different parts of the house or look at any unusual objects so be careful with anything fragile or valuable!

5-If your patient you´ll be amazed by the chough´s imitating talents, it´ll be able to imitate certain word and laughter and even repeat the sound of a car starting it´s engine!

Care

Even when domesticated Choughs will always be wild animals and will sometimes react in ways you will not anticipate. I t has a sharp beak and can cause harm with it. Therefore if you have  a small child in the house which could annoy the chough or cause it to react in a defensive way through aggression it would be better for you not to master the chough if you find it.

Background

Choughs are part of the corvids family (crows, rooks...). They are omnivores and have a great learning capacity. 

Choughs nest in church towers or old stone walls. They have colonised cities and eat waste. They are very organised birds and many biologists carry out passionate studies about them.

How to help Birds

What to do if a bird flies into a glass window, door or a wall

1-Pick the bird up carefully and place it in a shoe box full of cotton.

2-Close the lid of the shoe box and drill holes into the lid in order for air to pass in and out of the box easily.

3-Leave the bird alone and let it rest.

4-Once the bird starts moving inside the box release it back into the wild!

What to do if you find a bird with a broken leg

1-Place a matchstick against the bird´s broken leg and hold it with two pieces of soft tape.

2-Place the bird in a cotton nest inside a cage. 

3-Leave the bird and let it rest.

4-Only visit it to give it water and food.

5-Ater about two months the leg should have healed. Take the matchstick  off the bird´s leg carefully and release it into the wild.

Broken Wings

Not much can be done for a bird with a broken wing, the best thing to do is let nature take its course.

Ill Bird

The same, not much can be done. The best thing to do is let nature take its course.

What to do if you find a Bird soaked in Oil

It could be the case that you find a bird soaked in oil floating in the sea or washed up on the beach. If it is still alive and it´s not too big, there´s a chance that you can you save it.

1-Put the bird in a bath

2-Close its beak strongly with celotape. This is in order for the bird not to swallow chemical products.

3-Wash the bird with any sort of degreasing product used for dishwashers.

4-Rinse it with  cold water.

5-Repeat the washing of the bird if necessary.

6-Remove the celotape from its beak.

7-Feed the bird some fresh sardines and release it back into the wild. 

8-In case of an oil spill and there are lots of affected animals ( which there will be) call a bird protection asociation or any sort of organisation aimed to help animals.