Smith Bird Rescue

Our neighbors just had their well redrilled. I was out by the chicken coop checking on the baby chick one morning while the workers were out drilling. I heard my rooster run over to the fence making his defensive sounds and looked up to see the workers at my fence holding something. I went over there and saw they had a bird covered in mud, seemingly dead. He(I do not know if it was male or female but for the sake of this post I will say "he"...I hate referring to things as "it") must have gotten stuck in all the runout of mud from their drilling. He was cold and wet with hardened mud all over him :(  They gave him to me to see if I could save him. The poor thing was so tired and distressed that he didn't move,peep, or put up any fight the whole time I was holding and washing him. Oh, it was a mourning dove.

First  I focused on getting its body temperature back up by cupping my hands over his body. It was very cold to the touch which is definitely not normal. Once he felt warmer I rinsed him under some warm water in the sink. It took quite a while to get all the mud and dirt off...it was caked into all of his feathers all the way down to his skin.

After he was nice and clean I wrapped him in  a towel and tried to dry up the bulk of the wetness. Then I put him in a box ,with food and water, on a heating pad in the dark, quiet bathroom for a few hours  so he could finish drying and destress/regain strength. This is what he looked like clean and dry, before his release!

When it was time to release him I set him on a branch in a bush, He immediately flew away but stopped and landed on the ground in my neighbor's yard. He just sat there for a few minutes so I went and picked him up and put him in another tree. He sat on that branch for a while (my friend who does animal rescue said this was normal since he was so stressed) but I worried as it was nearing nightfall. So I went to recapture him for the night but when I got near him he flew high into a tree...that is a good thing!!  I stayed around for a bit to see if he came down, fell, etc but he seemed ok and happy to be back in a tree :)