Freak accident

[Grim]

I had some birds flying this evening, clear sky, getting cold, no wind, plenty of light. They are whipping by when suddenly I hear a sound I didn't recognize and a bird comes spinning out of the air and almost hits my house. It lays bloody and lifeless in the grass. No hawk in sight and all I could think was someone shot my bird. I jump up both sides of the fence and see no one. Look up and thats when I noticed a power line just swaying about. The poor birds must have flown right into it.

On a good note I held the bloody bird and to my surprise it started panting. I can't tell for sure but I think one wing is broken and it looks like one eye was full of blood but it is now open and all swollen. I have the bird inside and it is standing up! Looks like it is going to be ok.

[TerriB]

Wow!!! That one would have been dificult to figure out if you hadn't been right there and thought to look up. So glad you were there to scoop that bird into a safe place. Sure hope recovery is quick and uneventful!

[bluecheck]

Literally the weirdest accidental death I ever saw in pigeons happened at a friend's house in Chino CA about some 20 years back now. We were outside. The birds were in the air. My buddy was getting ready to feed his pigs and I was watching the flock and trying to keep an eye on the sow my friend was feeding so it would eat him. One of the birds flying was blind in one eye, had been for a couple of years. Suddenly it was like someone hit a large stick against wood - that's how loud it sounded. Almost instantly, the blind bird crumpled directly overhead and fell almost at my feet. It was just dead. My friend looked at me, I looked at him and picked up the bird. It almost looked perfectly okay until we looked near the head and there was a fine line crack at the front of the skull that was just beginning to ooze some blood. There were no wires overhead, no nothing. So we spent the next ten minutes trying to figure out what happened. We had no idea, until about a half hour later another pigeon came flying in as if it were hurt. It trapped and my buddy went and got it. In the hand, it looked okay until he lifted the wing and blew against the feathers of the body. Then we saw it. A massive bruise under its right wing. The only thing we could figure out was that the dead bird couldn't see out of one eye and it had flown directly into the side of the other bird, cracked his skull and broke his neck and died instantly. The other pigeon moved off with the flock a bit before going down and then coming home again later. It was a weird accident and one I never expect to see again in my lifetime.

[TAWhatley]

One would not think that an automobile and bird collision would make a lot of noise .. guess what .. it does! I was at the duck pond a year or so ago and was at the back end of the park/pond when I heard a HUGE THUD, CRASH and turned around to see what was going on. People were running out of their houses to see what had happened .. it was a hit and run .. car hit Canada Goose and knocked the goose back into the park from the street. The goose was wonky for a few minutes and then OK .. thank goodness for that. The sound was, however, unbelievable .. people were coming from about 2 square blocks to see what had happened.

Another time at this same park I heard a car hit a human on a bicycle in the crosswalk .. no mistaking that sound for anything other than very ominous .. an INCREDIBLY HUGE noise and then absolute silence. The bicycle rider did survive but was seriously injured.

Terry

[Trees Gray]

I'm so sorry to hear about your bird, I sure hope he will be okay, what a shock that must have been.

I am glad the bird is inside and hope the wing heals.

Terry, I'm glad the goose was okay, would be nice if someone had gotten the license plate number on the car that hit the goose, but I imagine that car was long gone by the time people came out to look.

bluecheck, I'm sorry to hear about that incident, we always advise to keep a partially blind bird inside for such reason. They can remember where objects are as they don't move, and they learn to fly around them... but birds that are consistantly moving in flight, is another matter.

[RodSD]

I wish your bird a fast recovery.