Flying Diaries- Joan Lee

Birds with broken wings CAN survive.

Queen Bird Nerd

Joan Lee was an older juvenile magpie who we soon found had a broken wing.

Maybe, some of you are thinking she is not going to survive. And, I don’t blame you for thinking this (Elliot had a broken wing: R.I.P Elliot).

But Elliot’s wing was badly shattered, and Joan Lee’s wing was a clean break.

Joan Lee was a lucky magpie. One of the luckiest we have had (R.I.P Charlie Lee and Charlie Lee 2).

Joan Lee just wanted to get out and be free. She would jump up and try to fly up onto branches. She got confused about why she could not fly. But she kept trying, and she managed to jump onto the first branch (Birds are super smart). She was quite old and could eat by herself.

When we first checked her with the vet, she put a cast on her to support her broken wing. Now we had to take that cast off. It was a hard process, as she had a hard bite and we had to wear gloves. We also had to be careful we didn’t cut her feathering by accident.

A few days after I was checking on her, I noticed she got up in the tree we had put in the aviary! And after that she flew a lot around.

She also had some magpies visiting her that seemed quite friendly.

Finally, we knew it was time for release. We took her back to where she was found and as soon as we unlatched the cage she burst out! At first she was a little dazed, but straight away she started poking in the ground for worms. She found some 😊😊😊

But she still wasn’t flying, so we encouraged her to move. She did. She flew away, up up up into the trees. We were a little worried that the other magpies would have forgotten her and would attack her, but there were no angry calls up from above, so we knew she was fine.

Success!

Queen Bird Nerd

P.S Joan Lee was with us for four weeks. We had to release her in her former habitat because magpies are very territorial. She lived on a diet of insects, meat, and water.

PP.S We named Joan Lee John Lee at first because this was the name of the person who found her; we thought she was a boy! The way to tell is if they have more grey on their back, then they are females. A male would have pure white down the back of the neck. Magpies would also have grey on their backs if they were a fledgling or old bird.