Injured and dead birds in garden


Bristolianharpie's avatar
This morning a couple of blackbirds (one male and one female) crashed into the windows of my house. The female hit the window hard and is now dead however the male is still alive and in shock. We've placed the male in a box of soft bedding and taken him inside to keep him warm.

We are not sure how to properly dispose of the dead female and would like some advice for caring for the male until he recovers. We're pretty sure he's just in shock but we don't know for how long.
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Knightster's avatar
Dig a hole, dump the bird there and cover it with dirt. Simple stuff.
AvisCelox's avatar
He should be fine by now. Let him go if you haven't already.

As for the female, you can bury her or simply leave her somewhere out of sight. The earth will handle the rest.
Lady-KL's avatar
He died at the vet.
AvisCelox's avatar
Sometimes these things happen. You did everything you could.

There are measures you could take to try to prevent this in the future. [link]
Lady-KL's avatar
I'm not the OP or the one who took him to the vet. ;) Thanks for the link, though.
M-G-Studio's avatar
The male is probably in much more shock while staying indoors, you should let him free if he isn't injured at all. Just place him outside somewhere far from streets, where cars might run him over if he doesn't fly away in time. As for the female, just bury her somewhere near a tree under the earth and place a big rocks on top so that any stray cats or dogs don't dig her up and eat her.
Lady-KL's avatar
He died at the vet.
M-G-Studio's avatar
Yea I kinda assumed that was going to happen.
kath-paints's avatar
Okay I noticed that we already saw that the bird died, I am sorry to hear that.

In the future though, I would recommend against bringing small wild birds inside in order to care for them. Birds are very flighty and have weak hearts. Unexpected stress can be enough to kill a bird, so you should avoid changing its situation or touching it any more than necessary. If it tried to fly while indoors that would have been disastrous.

If it happens again, find a place where you can see it from the house but is out of reach of cats and sheltered from hawks, place the bird there and watch it from a distance for signs of activity. Example might be, on a covered bird table.

If they die you should return them to the earth. You can bury them, but leaving them on soil somewhere out of sight away from the house will be just as good. I had a space between the wall, the shed and a shrub at the end of the garden I used to use for this.

Birds flying into windows is very common. It happens all the time at my house but thankfully nobody has killed themselves doing it yet. Consider putting stickers on your windows if you seem to be on a "flight path".
Bristolianharpie's avatar
Thank you, that was very helpful.


We're looking into getting stickers for the windows so it hopefully won't happen again.
GeNeRaLLuLz's avatar
Birds do taste like chicken
barnowlgurl23's avatar
Oh those poor birdies
Trampire's avatar
Nature's a bitch.
lKxxki's avatar
You can eat them...
Bristolianharpie's avatar
I guess.





I knew it was only a matter of time before the 'interesting' replies started appearing
lKxxki's avatar
Well, its not a joke :o

I already eat birds, it looks like chicken...sometimes ^^;
Bristolianharpie's avatar
Never said it was




But I don't really want to eat blackbirds
TurkEvulture's avatar
Get out of here, kid.
lKxxki's avatar
DoctorV23's avatar
And remember, birds crash into windows because they don't see them. Some tape - probably something decorative that wouldn't look bad, would be good prevention for the future.
AllieORiley's avatar
That is not all the times true. Birds crashing into windows is rare and is akin to how many airliners crash each year. Birds are pretty good at avoiding things like branches, cars, signs, and cats. I think the two had their minds elsewhere, if you catch my drift. How do you know what sex they are besides their plumage? Males are much more colorful of course.
EbolaSparkleBear's avatar
Birds crash into windows all the time, it is by no means rare.
AllieORiley's avatar
Maybe as a whole in the world, but I have only had it happen once in all my 47 years and that was a big patio sliding door. But even my daughter walked into that one because it looked like it was open.