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In the summer of 2005, someone found an oriole’s
nest on the ground. One of the nestlings was
dead, the other still alive. They decided to
raise her themselves.
Eventually, when she was fledgling age and should
have been able to fly but could not, the finder
must have realized that something was wrong.
He put the bird in a box, and took the little
oriole to a veterinarian who called a licensed
rehabilitator to come get her.
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Once home, the rehabber opened the box. The
little oriole jumped out, hopped up to her shoulder
and began nibbling at her ear. “Oh, no!
She’s a human imprint (confused identity),
she’ll never be releasable.” Little
Bit would need a permanent home with a licensed
facility, or she would have to be euthanized.
An imprinted wild animal cannot survive in the
wild and it would be cruel to release her.
In September, Little Bit arrived at White Flicker
Wild Bird Rehabilitation Clinic looking like
this:
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| Although her weight was normal,
her feather quality was very poor, so poor that
she didn’t even have tail feathers. Her
wing feathers were tattered looking, too skimpy
to sustain flight. Feather quality like this is
the result of a deficient diet, and possibly inadequate
hydration. With these external signs of poor nutrition,
the chances were her immune system and other internal
systems were also damaged.
Orioles molt in late summer. With good nutrition,
Little Bit lost her tattered feathers and grew
beautiful new ones – including tail feathers!
And she could fly at last.
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| When placed with other birds, Little
Bit is at first frightened, then tolerant, but
never interacts with them. On the other hand,
she readily interacts with people, and is not
stressed by being looked at up close, something
that would frighten a bird that was truly wild.
“OK, so she’s a pet,” you
may think. No, she is NOT a pet. She is an imprinted
wild bird that is used for education programs.
She lives in our facility, and since she is
a migratory species, she spends cold weather
in the clinic, and warm weather in her own outdoor
flight cage. She’s a wild bird raised
by someone who did not have the knowledge, experience,
or perhaps the concern to raise a healthy bird
and keep her wild enough to be released.
She will never have the opportunity to fly
free, migrate, weave an amazing nest, or raise
a brood. Never. Someone took a baby bird from
the wild and took away her chance for a normal
life.
(Related Article: “Why Can’t I
Raise It Myself?”)
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