When I did rehabbing, twice I was given House Sparrows, once a baby starling, and once a baby pigeon. I'm one of those people who can be too empathetic with birds, and would never have been able to kill these individual birds. But as one who is genuinely empathetic, I could never have released them into the wild, either, where they would most assuredly have caused problems for native birds. One of the sparrows died of its injuries very quickly. The other I kept as a pet, as I did with the starling. Mortimer the Starling was a delightful house pet, delighting my children with his imitations--he lived to be 9 years old. And Bernice the Pigeon lived a long life here, too. Except for the starling, which I knew I wanted to keep as a pet to learn more about their vocalizations, none of these birds had been correctly identified by the person bringing it to me. (The person who brought me Bernice actually thought he was a Barn Owl!)
Like domesticated cats, exotic birds do NOT belong outdoors in North America. Period. Laura Erickson Duluth, MN Producer, "For the Birds" radio program <http://www.lauraerickson.com/> There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of birds. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature--the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter. --Rachel Carson
