Moon Potato posted:

gently caress. I loved reading about that bird when I was a kid.

We have some bird drama in my neighborhood now. The White-tailed Kites that like to hunt near my freeway exit had three babies fledge at the beginning of the month, but the father disappeared right around that time. I've been stopping off with a camera on the way to and from work when I can to keep tabs on them. The mom was hunting constantly to keep them fed, and has kept two of them alive. On my last visit, one of the fledglings was caught a vole on its own, so I think they're going to be alright.


Mom giving a vole to one of her children.


A juvenile misses the vole with its talons and face-plants into it.


One juvenile returning to the perch with a vole after its sibling has already eaten.

SwissDonkey posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOt0a_c4e2Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLwGfoybuPw

Sheep-Goats posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TMJKBS-R6U&t=135s

QUEEN CAUCUS posted:

I found someone's abandoned domesticated pigeon about two years back, sitting/making GBS threads on my studio's entryway. But she had broken bones, calcified poop on every toe, and was generally in bad shape and though I tried calling a couple bird rescues, nobody would take in this pigeon.
I made a thread on PI back in the day to ask for help, but in the end I couldn't help her and took her to the animal shelter to be put down.

Sorry filthy hobo pigeon, I tried.

3D GAY WORLD posted:

I volunteer for a local non-profit called Palomacy (San Francisco, though they serve the greater bay area) and it's really unfortunate how few shelters are willing to take in pigeons, even if they're domestic and unable to survive in the wild at all. A lot of people (read: ignorant fools) will see domestic pigeons being sold live for food at street markets and will buy them and "free" them in a park or something. The vast majority are killed within the day either by cars, predators or even rear end in a top hat people (why do parents never bother to tell their kids to stop terrorizing and kicking at pigeons?), and the very few who are lucky enough to be rescued tended to end up being euthanized at a shelter despite being in good health. I personally rescued the single surviving baby pigeon out of six that had been reported as being abandoned under a park bench; no one found out until it was dark, and by the time I found the bench all but one had been killed and eaten by raccoons, and I found the lone survivor soaking wet hiding behind a rock next to a lake, about nine feet away from where another racoon was eating her companion. Really hosed up, as whoever bought those six baby pigeons and released them did no research whatsoever and just assumed they'd be fine in the wild. Our organization is literally the first result if you Google "pigeon rescue sf". Thankfully the one baby I rescued survived and I take care of her at my house now; I named her Elma, after the name of the little girl that reported seeing the baby pigeons and thus saved at least one of their lives. I'd post pictures but I'm at work.

Thankfully since Palomacy (previously Mickacoo) got up and running we've managed to save 800+ domestic and unreleasable pigeons and doves, as well as managing to educate local shelters like SFACC about how to care for birds and actually show people that they're there and up for adoption instead of keeping them locked up in tiny cages in back room. Several times when I've visited I've checked a starving baby pigeon's chart and seen that they were being fed 2mL of food a day (the minimum amount is 30-40mL a day).

Tendai posted:

At least we can all agree that cockatiels are objectively fuckin' fantastic, right?

Tendai posted:

The full video is even better. Little dude is so happy about his paper towel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_-4KArFR08

Unguided posted: