On 6-22 I received a call about two baby Eastern kingbirds that the lady’d been feeding since 6-18—that’s 5 days. She worked in a vet clinic and a client had brought them in. Instead of abiding by state and federal law and contacting a licensed wildlife rehabilitator to take the birds, she decided to play Lone Ranger and rehab them herself…yeah, we all know how that’s gonna play out, right?

On the phone she said she’d been taking “very good” care of them and “trying” to feed them every half hour, but one seemed dehydrated.  Interesting that she suddenly was able to locate me when things started going south, no?

Kingbirds are on the decline but are not listed as a species of concern…yet. I agreed to meet the lady and take the birds, figuring that her cobbled-together diet would have them nutritionally down, at the very least. I was totally unprepared for what I saw when I got the birds.

One was dying and didn’t even survive the 20 minute drive to my home. The other had the worst case of diarrhea I’ve seen in a while in birds. Both the DOA and the survivor looked as if they’d bathed in their food.

I bit my tongue really hard and told the lady that bird feathers needed to be pristine in order not to compromise their flight ability. She replied that she didn’t know how to clean them and then asked me why there was no information on how to feed them online. I again bit my tongue and explained that since songbird rehab is state and federally regulated, we don’t post the approved diets for just anybody to access; that would be encouraging lawbreaking.

So…I get the corpse and the diarrhea baby home and immediately begin getting together the stuff I need to bathe the poor bird. Look at the food and poop on his wings and legs…look at the unhealthy color and consistency of that poop.

As I begin bathing the poor, bedraggled thing, I notice that THE LEFT WING IS BROKEN. How in hell do you have a bird for FIVE days and not notice a broken wing??? He also was unhealthily thin and frantically demanding food.

Okay, let’s review…she kept the birds in violation of state and federal law; called me only when she’d killed one bird and possibly doomed the other to a life in captivity; managed to ignore the rampant diarrhea; totally ignored basic hygiene; and nearly starved the surviving bird to death...

Within a few hours of proper food, the diarrhea had resolved. Three baths later, most of the gunk was off the feathers, although I went very easy on the broken wing, despite the fact that I thought I could feel a callus already, meaning the bone had healed—in an improper position that could hinder the bird’s ability to fly.

I took the clean and normally pooping, albeit thin, bird to Smalley’s Animal Hospital this morning, where vet Shelley Baumann confirmed that the broken wing had indeed already developed a callus and was stable in its droopy position. Shelley is hopeful that since the bird is young and has never experienced flight, when he does attempt to fly he’ll compensate for the droopy wing naturally, having never known anything else. If not, we both agreed that having never experienced freedom, he should adapt well to life in captivity as an educational bird, assuming there are no later complications from the improper diet or the improperly healed bone.

So…one bird died for no reason; another may never experience the joy of free flight—and all because some fool wanted to play rehabber, without the proper permits, training or experience. What makes it worse is that, as I mentioned earlier, kingbirds are on the decline. Even two birds out of the breeding population could make a difference…

Do you now understand why I get so worked up about having the proper permits to work with wildlife?