The story of Malteaser

Freak bird accidents CAN happen

QueenBirdNerd

Hey bird nerds!

I know what you’re thinking, I haven’t written in AGES!

I have had lots of things going on…

At the moment I don’t have a bird, but I would like to tell you about my recent birds, Malteaser and Pheonix.

Malteaser was a (SUPERCUTE) young magpie we got called about sometime in December. She had got herself into trouble in the yards of a gas centre! She had been placed out of the nest way too soon, and had come crashing to the ground, along with another baby magpie who didn’t make it. When we picked her up from the gas centre (there were a surprising number of magpies around there) she looked pretty vulnerable and she wasn’t making any noises. We tried to give her some water (success) and a little food (a bit harder), and she took them with a little encouragement.

We took her home and put her in the aviary. She was completely fine, with no injuries, but we were going to try to reunite her with her mother when she was well enough. Although, gas centres don’t make the safest environment for young birds!

She was fine with us feeding her the next day, (feeding magpies is SO CUTE, they open their beaks and screech and you drop the meat in…)

We were feeding her with mince covered in insectivore mix, because it gives them the vital nutrients they need, and the occasional couple of worms.

She didn’t seem to be getting the hang of getting food for herself, but if we reunited her with her mother, she would teach him/her. (It’s hard to tell whether they are a boy or girl when they are younger, because females have gray on their backs but so do babies.) So, a week or so later when she was fit and healthy, we took her to a park right next to the gas centre to try and release (I’m just going to call him/her a girl for now) her.

Strangely, there didn’t seem to be many magpies around at that time of day. We put the box containing Malteaser in a fork in the tree and sat and waited a few paces back.

I held food above her head sometimes to make her squawk to attract her mother, but only one magpie started coming close. We held our breath, watching it come closer and closer, but it ignored her little squeaks and went straight for some food we had spilt. We didn’t find her Mum that day.

We had to take Malteaser back to the aviary, but luckily she wasn’t becoming too restless to get out, and seemed ok. We decided we’d try again the next day to release her, but at a different time.

We brought her out at dusk this time, and she flapped out of the box and started exploring (ADORABLE!) and I put her on a tree branch where she settled down and fed her a little, but not too much because we wanted her to squeak for her Mum.

The same magpie came again, but completely ignored her and started digging for worms. Her Mum was nowhere to be seen.

We decided it wasn’t working to reunite her, so we would have to take her home, and raise her until she was old enough to fend for herself…

We had Malteaser for about another week or two and she was growing really well and practicing trying to fly. Then one day, I came home and my Dad said Malteaser didn’t look good, and that he was afraid she might be dying…

I ran into the aviary to see for myself, and I found Malteaser sitting on the ground. We tried to get her to stand up, but she just kept on sinking back down. I picked her up and felt her legs. They felt like floppy rag dolls, hanging limply.

I was extremely worried about her, and we decided she needed to be checked by a vet straight away, but none of the vets were open because it was late, except for the Emergency one and that was far away. We made our way down that night but, unfortunately they were not able to look at her and so we had to go home again, and we arranged to take her in the morning.

She slept in my room that night, and when I woke up I heard rustling and breathed a sigh of relief. She was still alive…

We took her to the vet, but then I had to go to school and fretfully awaited news, and hoped she would be ok. 

My parents called the school at around lunchtime, and apparently Malteaser was going to be ok! She had broken both her legs, but she wasn’t in pain, and she wouldn’t need to be put down, though she might never be able to go out in the wild again. She must of been trying to fly too high or something, and then crashed…right onto the concrete tiles of the aviary.

At home time, I ran towards our car happily, thinking everything was going to be fine… 

My Dad greeted me and the first thing I said excitedly was “Malteaser is going to be ok!” 

My dad looked grim and said… 

“I’m sorry, but the vet’s checked her again, and it turns out she actually had a big fracture and it would cause her pain later on, and she had to be put down…”

I burst into tears.

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A few hours later…

We had been called about a baby wattlebird a couple of days before and we said we couldn’t take it because we had Malty, but now…

A Pheonix had risen from the ashes…