I know that Tree Swallows are extremely social birds, and migrate in large flocks. However yesterday with the cold snap and high winds, about 25 Tree Swallows crammed themselves into our Bluebird next boxes (which are quite small to begin with). Is this a normal type of behavior for the birds when it gets cold? They shoved so many birds into each box that they couldn't get back out. When we went out this morning we felt it necessary to open up the boxes and we had 15 in one box and 9 in the other. In each box at the bottom there was one casualty that appeared to be both crushed by the birds above it as well as possibly suffocated.
There are 2 swallows who appear unable to fly, one looks strong but perhaps dazed and cold, and the other looks injured. Would it be best to try to get the two birds to the rehab center? We tried to put a secondary box out there (cardboard) to help shelter them from the wind and I can pick up the birds without fail and place them in, but they refuse to remain in the box for safety or shelter. Thanks a million! -Sarah Brooklyn Park, MN (Near 610 and W. River Rd.) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://moumn.org/pipermail/mou-net_moumn.org/attachments/20080427/f36cc470/attachment.html
