Saving birds in distress

Deepa Mohan narrates her experience of saving a tiny bird in distress, and explains the care to be taken while doing so.

Tiny birds -be it anykind- are truly the creatures that melt one’s heart. It is always a delight to see baby birds in the nests, with parents diligently flying around to get them food. Flowerpeckers are among the smallest birds in India. Here’s the heart-warming story of a tiny bird that was rescued.

We -a group of like-minded people – were on a nature trail on the Bannerghatta-Kaggalipura Road, when we found a Pale-billed Flowerpecker, which had been either pushed out of its nest, or had fallen from it before we could fly. Two young boys had picked it up, saving it from the stray dogs that were looking to gobble it up.

The little one was looking quite lost, but was able to peck at the grains the boys were offering it. We, too, did not want to interfere with the bird more than was necessary, so we went our way.

Pic: Deepa Mohan

One has to be very careful while picking up wild creatures; very often, the fear they have of humans overrides their distress, and they panic when approached. Sometimes, birds, whose heart-rates are much higher than ours, can literally die of the shock.

We hoped that this was a rescue story which would have a happy ending, as the bird seemed able to feed, and had been saved from the predators. But as in all true stories, we never did find out the ending!

For more information about this bird, click here

You can see them very often, especially in the Singapore Cherry trees which are planted near roadside restaurants on the outskirts of Bangalore.

Comments:

  1. Deepa Mohan says:

    Uma Kandasarma says that this is an adult bird, not a baby..but it did seem like a baby to us.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Similar Story

Garudachar palya: The “hot spot” in Whitefield’s IT Hub

Examining the heat island effect in densely built-up Garudachar Palya ward in Whitefield’s IT Hub, which also has limited tree cover.

Garudachar Palya is part of Mahadevapura constituency, with an area of 6.5 sq km, which includes four revenue villages — Garudachar Palya, Hoodi, Seegehalli, and Nallurahalli. These villages have stayed mostly the same, while the city has expanded around them with more organised development from the BDA. This mismatch has led to issues like narrow village lanes becoming crowded with traffic, as they’re now used as shortcuts to bypass main roads. Looking at population growth, between 2011 and 2024, the ward has seen an estimated increase of 62.24%. This rapid growth adds to the existing strain on infrastructure. Ward no…

Similar Story

Saving Dwarka Forest: Citizens approach apex court to protect forest land near Delhi airport

Delhi’s Dwarka Forest has seen brazen destruction thanks to a railway redevelopment project. A recent SC stay order has raised hopes.

According to a recent World Bank report, India presently accounts for a meagre 1.8% of the global forest cover. Even more concerning is the fact that an enormous ‘46,759 acres of forest-land have been sanctioned for mining’ across the country, over the course of the last five years, by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) itself. According to many ace climate scientists and researchers, our planet has already hit “the tipping point”. In this backdrop, the people’s struggle to save Dwarka Forest, one of the last remaining natural forest lands in a choking capital city, is a…