This is not a sparrow

When you are the birder in your circle of friends, all the questions come to you.

Questions about found baby birds mostly. This time I got a call, ” yeah …we heard the bird hit the window and it looks dead”  I say “What do you think it is?”  Answer “a sparrow”  I said ok… then I gave instructions on feeling the bird to see if it’s neck was broken and checking to see if it was breathing and placing in a safe place then checking back in 15 -20 minutes intervals.

I said, can you take a picture and send to me when it comes to? The picture above is what I got, not exactly a sparrow!   End of the story – Yes, he did recover and fly away in about an hour. My friends thought I was some sort of Bird Whisperer when this happened.

Populations of the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo in western North America are in steep decline. This bird has disappeared from British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon during the first half of the twentieth century. Eastern populations have declined as well, though not as much.

My non-bird friends who helped this guy on his journey really couldn’t appreciate how rare this “sparrow’ was to birders!  I am glad they cared enough to reach out to me.

If you would like more information on bird strikes – what to do and preventative steps, here is a great pdf from  the Sapsucker Woods – Cornell lab of Ornithology

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/Members/BirdNote10–Windows.pdf