This northwestern Ont., resident saw a bird of prey under attack and stepped in to save it

A birdwatch of feed found struggling on the holding of a northwesterly Ontario householder is now on the road to recovery, thanks to a fast response from the resident.

Susan Venn spotted the Northern Harrier Raptor Monday while out with her dogs near her Murillo-area home.

“The ravens or crows were trying to push some bird into the ground, and the bird was down and struggling,” she said. “I didn't want to see something bad happen to it. And so I took my dogs back, and then I went back and found the bird and picked him up.”

Venn brought the bird into her garage and called Wildlife Rehabilitator Jenn Salo, who runs Thunderbird Wildlife Rescue.

“She said she'd be here right away, and she was, and she pulled him out of the box and had just a quick look at him and said that something was broken in his wing and she would get him into the vet and get an X-ray,” Venn said.

That X-ray revealed surprisingly good news.

“Looking at the x-rays of his broken wing, he has a spiral fracture of his ulna,” Salo said, explaining that the ulna is the larger, thicker, and longer of the two bones in the bird’s forearm. The other bone is called the radius, and they are both located between the elbow and the wrist.

“Usually when birds break their wings, they break the radius and the ulna,” she said. “But this guy was super lucky, and only the ulna was broken.”

Because the second bone remains intact, it helps keep the wing stable, improving the bird’s chances of healing.

“This bird was incredibly lucky to be found when he was. In this bird’s case, it was a fresh fracture,” Salo said. “He was found before the bones protruded through the muscle and skin, and before the radius broke, he actually has a really good chance at recovery.”

However, Salo says the recovery process won’t be quick. It could take months of careful rehabilitation, and even then, nothing is guaranteed.

“It depends on how well he handles the stress of captivity, if he is going to feed himself or if he's going to have to be force-fed,” she said. “There are so many factors that go into rehabilitating a bird of prey. It's a lot of intensive care, a lot of food, a lot of cleaning, a lot of time.”

Early spring can be especially tough on raptors returning from migration.

“When they're just coming back from their migration, a lot of them are in a weakened condition,” Salo said. “With the crappy weather this spring, there's not much food out there available for them. So they have to work extra hard.”

That stress, combined with territorial behaviour, can lead to dangerous encounters.

“I could see a scenario where the ravens attacked this bird because it probably came too close to where they're nesting,” she said. “It's a rough world out there.”

Salo hopes this story also helps spread an important message.

“A lot of people, as soon as they see something that's injured, they always want to give it food and water,” she said. “That is not the first course of action.”

Instead, she recommends gently covering the animal with a towel, placing it in a box and calling a wildlife expert like herself.

“Reduce handling as much as possible,” she said.

For Venn, helping the bird was simply the right thing to do.

“To me, there wasn't another choice,” she said. “It wasn't going to come out well for him if I didn't get to him quickly.”

Reporter

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