You have to be very careful applying heat of any kind to wildlife outdoors, especially one that may already be hypothermic. Oftentimes well-intentioned individuals kill animals trying to warm them back up by putting them into shock. Finding a heat source that only affects the portion of the bird that is stuck, as opposed to its entire body, would be recommended. With something as small as an American Goldfinch, assuming there wasn't a build-up of ice, maybe even just covering its foot with your warm hand and defrosting it that way may have worked, or would in future.
Thanks for sharing Ira, it's always our worst fear to leave birds worse-off than they were to begin with. But at least you freed it. Christy Payne Wheat Ridge On Thu, Dec 8, 2016 at 10:27 AM Mary Keithler <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Ira and birders, > > Perhaps a hair dryer with a long extension cord would work better. > > Mary Keithler, Arapahoe County > > > > Sent from my iPhone > > On Dec 8, 2016, at 8:41 AM, Ira Sanders <[email protected]> wrote: > > This morning when I went to put out the feeders, there was a goldfinch > hanging from the metal arm of the hooks we use to hang the feeders. At > first it wasn't moving and I was wondering how a bird could somehow die in > that position. I have no idea how long it was there, but I'm sure it was > long enough to weaken it. As I got closer, I saw it's eyes were open and > then it started to flutter a little. It's foot had frozen to the iron arm > and it was hanging by 1 foot. I ran in to get some water to get it loose, > but our efforts, which were incompetent and inadequate, didn't save all of > it's foot. > My first efforts only caused ice to form and made it worse. > The bird did fly from Tammy's hand but part of it's foot was still on the > metal. Obviously we did it wrong. In retrospect, I don't think warm water > was a good idea at all. > In case someone else has this same miserable experience, maybe some > forethought could result in a successful outcome and not our utter failure. > > -- > Ira Sanders > Golden, CO > "My mind is a raging torrent flooded with rivulets of thought cascading > into a waterfall of creative alternatives." > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Colorado Birds" group. > > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CABF3siFD4-93S4BVOPBHFU26HE%2BPZEHxTdD-J88oz%2BN4W0Y3wQ%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CABF3siFD4-93S4BVOPBHFU26HE%2BPZEHxTdD-J88oz%2BN4W0Y3wQ%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Colorado Birds" group. > > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/31080AF3-9EB9-4A87-A266-53DA68F4D267%40gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/31080AF3-9EB9-4A87-A266-53DA68F4D267%40gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CADobSodOHKwWuYvcqJqLA8ZGUnAo-Em-t8YkqWu2%2BBDtN-tohg%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
