Anyone knows anything about bird rescue? specifically Herons?

I just found a large bird, apparenly a white heron.



It was just standing there on our lawn - I moved closer and closer and it wouldn't move. So I picked her up and brought her inside. We took her to the vet. Vet says he knows very little about birds but this one seems to be a large chick that simply fell off the nest and doesn't know how to fly yet. Other than that it looks healthy.

Now what? I know practically nothing about birds. I know this type usually eats ticks and so I guess it's a meat eater. I will try and find someone who does bird rescue tomorrow and get her to them. I hope it makes it through the night...

Hi Anne I just talked to my friend- this is what she told me:
You want to keep this chick extremely warm, hay or straw, strips of cloth or newspaper, heat lamps? Keep this baby warm


To feed it, you need a fairly long flexible rubber tubing (surgical tubing, only the red color, not the brown or beige those are to stiff)
Mix up 1 quart of water, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon sugar.

When the baby opens it's mouth- you will see in the back of the throat two openings- one *pulses* (moves) stay away from that opening. Insert the tube down the other hole, and then start syringing the liquid into the tube

A baby heron will stress vomit, so be prepared that this might happen. You have to figure that the baby has lost 10% or more in dehydration, so you have to weigh the baby and try and figure out how much liquid to give her (that's the tricky part)

The baby also needs fish, not processed fish but raw fish. If you have goldfish that works, but the stuff that comes in cans with heavy oils is not good. Depending on the age of the baby, it will also eat small mice NO HAMBURGER the chick needs calcium and hamburger does not have what it needs.

Also she just attended a seminar and there were three people from Israel there. She is looking up their emails and will send them your email and they will be in touch.

Hope this helps!

I live in coastal Georgia and we have those bird here too, I see them on the sides of the roads and in the marshy areas, I was thinking small fish for food too, or insects maybe, sometimes we have them hang out near our backyard, I figure fish though, cause when Im driving I see them out in the marshy areas near where we live. Hope he makes it OK!

How interesting, Anne.

My dad who lives in Singapore adores birds. When i was growing up, i used to observe him feeding and taking care of his parrot and other birds that i can't name now.

Keep us posted, Anne.


cheers!

We have the grey blue herons at my cottage. I just love them. They are usually located in marshy areas, eating fish, frogs, salamanders, mice, aquatic insects, crickets, grasshoppers, and a variety of other insects.

Good luck Anne! Let us know what happens!

I'm trying to find a place that will take the bird and take good care of her but so far nothing so she's still here. I don't know if it's a male of a female but I can't call her "it" so I decided it's a girl

She's still alive and I think she's doing slightly better. I've been giving her mainly water for the first 24 hours (she wouldn't take any food - spit it out). This morning she's been eating small morsels of soaked cat food (that's what the bird people around here all told me to give her - they said our herons don't eat fish and the best thing for her would be either dry cat food or dry dog food soaked in water). I'm beginning to think this bird will be staying here for a while. If we don't find her a home by the weekend, I think I'm going to start working on a building a large cage/enclosure for her outside.

Wish her luck!

wow, this is very interesting!
how does your cats respond to the bird? I bet they think its a new game...

Let me know if you need any help with it (I can't take it to my appartment, but I will try find people for you).

Keep us posted!

Sending get-better-birdie vibes! I wish I had info for you, I don't know anything about herons other than how they look. They are gorgeous birds!

The heron died two hours ago. She wouldn't eat much. One bird expert I talked to told me she was probably very ill but without an avian vet around there wasn't much to be done about. I hope she flies peacefully over the bridge...

Oh Anne, I am so sorry to hear that!

At least she was not alone, she knew there was someone looking after her.

Little bit of info on Heron as a totem/guide animal: Heron=Courage,Balance

Heron teaches us to find balance within change - strength, the assertiveness to claim what is ours - to look for opportunity when others would give up. It teaches us the strength of our convictions - to follow our own hearts - the benefits of slow, deliberate action.

OH Anne I am so sorry. Birds are so hard to keep alive and need specialized care. You did all you could humanely do. I hope Ron is okay- you said he was getting quite attached to the little one.

Oh Anne, I'm so sorry!!!! Baby birds are VERY difficult to take care of, especially if there's no one trained to give assistance. I tried to rescue a robin when I was in 4th grade. I didn't do very well. I know you know you did what you could. I didn't know Ron was getting attached... I hope he's OK too.

Thanks guys. We're ok now. Ron liked the Heron but I don't think he even realized it was gone. I think he's too young to get attached to anything in such a short time.

I'm ok too. I know we did what we could. I tried finding someone with more expertise who would take on this rescue, but all the places I contacted said they wouldn't take a regular heron. They are considered a pest over here, almost like vermin. Poor bird - at least she's at peace now.