Aussie Finch Forum

Well this morning I got a call from one of the neighbours, they had found a young magpie with one leg that wasn't able to fly. could I come and catch it and see what was wrong, so out I went in my PJ's with a blanket and caught up the little fella, the leg injury is old and completely healed (YAY) and it looked like he was just soaked through from all the rain, no obvious wing injury. So at the moment he is inside in my quarantine cage drying off, looks to be a youngster so I was wondering what peoples opinions were, should I aim to release him this afternoon or pass him on to a wildlife carer or try to feed him myself? Pretty sure mum and dad are close by, we have a couple of pairs around here that raise young every year.
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Possibly at that stage of development. Just a good feed and release.
LML

Just got him to take some cat mince with a few meal worms attached so I think I'll release him soonish, he's chortled a few times and the missing leg doesn't seem to bother him too much.

Couple of years ago we had a few days of very strong winds and I found a two week old Magpie in my front yard, a day later my dog found a baby Noisy Miner bird, I fed them both for another few weeks, they became very tame. I released them but they stayed around my property. They came for a feed whenever they were hungry, at other times they wouldn't wanna know you. The Magpie was eventually chased away by his parents, but he came back every once in a while. Unfortunately the Miner bird was too tame, often flying very low, the dog caught him one day, by the time I saw him he was already dead, hanging by the wing from his mouth. At the moment I have a baby House Sparrow I released about three weeks ago, he is always around, he shows up whenever he is hungry.
If you call WIRES, they are people with big hart but not much else, only god knows where the birds would end up. I caught several parrot at my bird feeders with all kinds of deformity and I was told the Vet put them down the following day. Therefore if I can do anything for the birds there'll be no more "Wildlife carers".

Well I released him this afternoon, flew really strongly, managed to perch well on the neighbours roof and then flew off again and out of sight, was calling for parents so hopefully they will find him, will keep my eye out over the next few days he'll be pretty distinctive with his one legged hop. I think he's got a good chance though he was looking pretty strong and had plenty of food in his belly.

Gday !

I was thinking it would be pretty rough to be "a young magpie with one leg that wasn't able to fly". I guess the other one flies okay.

MadOzzie

Well I saw him for the following 2 days after his release, mum and dad were with him as well, so all looks good. Have been out all day today so haven't gone looking for him at all

great news
A couple of years ago I had to untangle a young magpie from plastic baling twine that was embedded in its leg.
Poor thing was hanging from a tree - pretty clear it must have been part of the nesting material, its nest mate was dead from the same thing. If the twine was shorter and unable to get tangled it would have worked its was through the leg.