What should I do? Seems like it can’t fly 🙁

Personally I would let nature take its own path.

STW moves on from carrot testing……

<Waits to watch OP’s reaction before posting pigeon breast recipes>

Flying town rat or wood?

If later wring neck and scoff

I’d go for a nine iron.

You don’t want too much distance.

Could it be a racing pigeon? Leg will be ringed if so. Is it flapping round with a busted wing or just wandering about and keeping out of the way? If the latter, put a shallow bowl of water out for it, let it rest for a day or so and it should just fly off.

Would not recommend letting your dog into the garden. That doesn’t aid pigeon recovery, even if dog just wants a new playmate

Nuke it from above just to be sure?

Put it in an empty wheelie bin with a squirrel. Let them fight to the death.

Like a tiny, vermin Thunderdome.

I’ve put him in the garage out the way so the local cat doesn’t maul it.

Serious answer: Unless it’s got obvious injuries then, the advice we were recently given by the SSPCA in a similar situation, was just to leave it well alone. Any well meaning attempts to provide assistance might stress it out and make it much worse.

Pigeons are commonly afflicted with a disease that can leave them disoriented, a bit like vertigo.
We have a mating pair of Wood pigeons that nest in our garden and one of them spent a week or so hopping around in the garden only able to fly for short bursts while the other fussed round about. Made a full recovery.

Phone RSPCA for advice?

and lol@ at the irrational hatred of squirrels boiling over from the other thread into this one. Who knew a fluffy animal could invoke such loathing in the mountain biking community. Maybe subconsciously the grey squirrel represents the loss of empire for the English and symbolises their own impotence.

ElShalimo,

Yeah good idea! I’ll see how it looks in a few hours. I guess the fox will get him tonight or tomorrow, maybe that’s for the best if it can no longer fly.

Maybe subconsciously the grey squirrel represents the loss of empire for the English and symbolises their own impotence.

Slight thread derail but I’m fairly sure it was the British, not English empire? Other parts of these small islands were enthusiastic and influential participants in its worst excesses, however much their current inhabitants might like to deny it.

“The extraordinary influence of Scots in the British Empire has long been recognised. As administrators, settlers, temporary residents, professionals, plantation owners, and as military personnel, they were strikingly prominent in North America, the Caribbean, Australasia, South Africa, India, and colonies in South-East Asia and Africa. Throughout these regions they brought to bear distinctive Scottish experience as well as particular educational, economic, cultural, and religious influences. Moreover, the relationship between Scots and the British Empire had a profound effect upon many aspects of Scottish society”.

Anyway, back to pigeons and squirrels….

The extraordinary influence of Scots in the British Empire has long been recognised.

Exactly. Why do you think Americans like fried food so much – they learnt it from Scottish immigrants.

On that note, I think that when the Solomon Islands gained independence from the UK in 1978 they felt that they could once again speak Pijin

@fatmountain – phone the Solomon Islands High Commision. Maybe they can talk to it and ask it what the preferred action to take is

https://www.solomonislandsembassy.com/about/missions-abroad

when the Solomon Islands gained independence from the UK in 1978 they felt that they could once again speak Pijin

Thats a good point – if you’re leaving the pigeon in the garage can you perhaps leave the radio on for it?

https://www.bbc.com/pidgin/media-44221514

I never like to see animals suffer, wild or not. I have a specific ‘killing spade’ (actually a coal shovel) in the shed that’s accrued quite a high tally of mainly myxomatosis’d rabbits. Keep an eye on it and brain it if it doesn’t improve.

Prob leave alone if it’s wild and not in obvious distress. Have had poor luck with rehabing avian friends. They often seem to at first improve then I wake up to find they died in the night. Not always though.

Pigeons are often stunned or exhausted, especially racing pigeons. The last exhausted one we had in the garden was a racing pigeon, we chose to ‘save’ it from neighbour’s cat. Mrs R called the owner (from the number on tag) and he (in annoyed tone) said ‘don’t want her now’. He was quite happy to say that if we brought her back to him he’d ‘only wring her neck’.

We looked after her until she’s recovered strength then let her go and she flew into the tree, stayed an hour or so, and then flew off over towards the town. There’s a chance she unknowingly went ‘home’ to get her neck stretched, but (as the owner informed) also a chance not. Hard to know what to do in that situation but we gave her a chance at life at least.

Luckily our vet has a policy to assess injured wildlife and kindly euthanise free of charge. May be worth checking. That and local wildlife rescue.

If I’m in the field and find a very-injured bird with no way to get it to the vet then I will only kill it with a rock or branch if it is a small bird and the certainty of instant-kill. If it’s bigger than a sparrow then probably kindest and more-certain method is to dislocate it’s neck.

The easiest way with any bird up to the size of a mallard, is to grasp the body firmly in one hand, to stop it flapping, then take its head between the thumb and first two fingers of the other hand, and rotate until you feel the neck dislocate. Death is instant

What’s the most humane way to dispatch an injured bird?

Whatever you choose to do, I’m sure you’ll do it with kindness and the least amount of stress.

It’s still there. It’s not in a good way. It doesn’t seem in distress but I could smell infection. It’s legs/feet are all seized up and he can’t stand. I’ve left him some seed. I also hate the idea of suffering for no reason. Hmmm. I hope the fox will eat him tonight, or tomorrow I’ll phone around and see what the options are locally.

I have a specific ‘killing spade’

😯

Have you named it yet ? 😆

Hold on :?….. this isn’t part of your cycling kit is it ? Pump, spare tube, patches energy gels, killing spade…

It’s dead.

I’m glad I didn’t spade it.

Imagine you were just slumped in some corner, slowly making the DMT-induced transition back to not existing and someone came over and hit you over the head with spade.

Nab him
Jab him
Tab him
Grab him
Stop that pigeon now.