Rescued Band Tailed pigeon, 2 (Original)(Oregon, USA) (2024) Pintura por Elodie M. Richard

« What do you do with an injured bird when everyone insists that they aren’t allowed to help? My experience with a native, wild pigeon, called a band tailed pigeon, is my answer to that question.
​My friend, Shonda, found an injured band tailed pigeon in her side yard in Phoenix, Oregon. Band tailed pigeons are a wild, native species of pigeon. They migrate up and down the Pacific Coast and Mexico and breed in Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. The Pacific Coast population of band-tailed pigeons has experienced a long population decline. The North American Breeding Bird Survey indicates an average loss of 2% per year of this species since 1968 due to our forest management practices, the decline in Valley Oak and Blue Oak ecosystems, urban sprawl, and the species’ low reproductivity rate. Band tail pigeons usually have only one squab a year.
​The injured band tail appeared to have been hawk-struck. The poor bird had a giant, gaping hole in its crop with seed pouring out. I was called to help since I have a sanctuary for rescued, largely domesticated pigeons in Jacksonville, Oregon, a town nearby. Shonda’s friend, Phil, had taken two pictures of the bird: one of the wound and one of the back of the pigeon. From the pictures, I thought the injured bird was a Eurasian collared dove. I called my avian vet and asked if she could see it to do a crop repair. She refused. Her license as a veterinarian prevented her from seeing (and helping) wild animals, of any kind.

Shonda’s friend, Phil, called Wildlife Images. Wildlife Images is Oregon’s state rehabber. Wildlife Images is charged with rehabilitating injured, native wildlife in Oregon. It refused to take the bird too. From the pictures Phil forwarded, Wildlife Images determined that the bird was too badly injured to be rehabilitated and returned to the wild. Also, the bird was likely non-native and hence was not within the purview of the state rehabber. (This, of course, ended being untrue. Band tailed pigeons are native to Oregon.)
​So, Shonda, Phil and I were left with nowhere to turn. None of us knew any individual rehabbers in Southern Oregon or thereabouts, and time was of the essence in helping this bird if it was going to live. Shonda watched four (4) hours of YouTube videos about pigeon anatomy and how to stitch up a crop tear. Unwillingly, she took on the insane task of stitching up this bird’s crop. Having nursed scores of pigeons back to health from sickness and injury (including several crop repair surgeries), I knew the importance of immediate antibiotics and a painkiller. My husband, Steve, and I poured through all the leftover medicine from years of avian vet visits for our rescues and found a general spectrum antibiotic (Baytril), some meloxicam (a pain killer) and an antibiotic ointment for around the wound (silver sulfadiazine ointment (“silver”). Steve drove these antibiotics to Shonda at 9 pm that first night.

All of us felt certain our crazy undertaking was going to fail, and that the bird would not live through the night. But, unbelievably, she did. As of this writing, we are on Day 11. The bird was quickly identified as a band tailed pigeon, not a dove. She initially could do little on her own. She had to be encouraged to eat and drink. Shonda held a bowl of seed and a glass of water for the pigeon, so that the band tail could reach it without touching her sensitive wound. She couldn’t fly.
​As the days passed, she has cleared most of the hurdles to returning to the wild. She can eat and drink on her own now, and we have taken pains to ensure that she gets her wild diet of seed, ground acorns and berries. She preens herself, and she even laid an egg! Happy Day! And, yesterday, she started flying to a target (like a perch, ceiling fan, or her cage top), rather than crashing into a wall or door. She finished her 10 days of antibiotics. Release is so close now! A little more healing of her wound is necessary as the skin has pulled open slightly. And, we all would like to see her take stronger flight and watch her take a bath before our last day with this beautiful, wild creature »

After a successful recovery, the band tail was finally moved into an outside cage. She could adjust to the outside temperature and finish the week or weeks left of growing back all of her feathers over the crop tear and getting as strong as possible. An outside cage also minimized any more human contact.''

The Band tailed pigeon was successfully released to the wild on April 14 th.

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