I thought some might be interested in my anecdote about an injured bird and its companion, as I remembered the discussion a few weeks ago about behavior of birds when one is injured and the other is pecking at it. I observed a similar scenario.
I was driving along Ellis Hollow Rd on Sunday when a Baltimore Oriole flew close to my hood before I could react. I couldn't tell if it had made contact but in the rear view mirror I saw it flutter down to the ground on the road shoulder. My heart sinking, I turned around, thinking if it were injured I could take it to Victoria at Wild Things Sanctuary or, if it were just slightly stunned, at least move it somewhat off the road till it recovered. When I pulled up on the opposite side of the street from the bird, I realized that there were two birds there, one prone, the other, a male oriole, standing by it, pecking at its chest. The male flew up to a nearby tree when it saw me. As he flew, the struck bird's feet were suddenly up in the air, twitching a bit. I thought those were the death throes and I looked up in the nearby tree where the male had alit, and saw it preening itself. When I looked back at the bird on the road--it was on its feet and in the next second, in flight. The male followed it. Can anyone tell me if the one my car struck is an adult female or a juvenile? It looks diminutive in my photo but it seemed near adult size if not full; the sudden drop of the roadside has hidden its lower body. My hurried pictures taken from the car can be seen at my album on the Cayuga Birding web site: http://www.cayugabirdclub.org/gallery Melissa Groo Melissa Groo Fine Art Photography http://melissagroo.com -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
