syrinx

Hairy Woodpecker

A couple of years ago my wife and I were in the back yard doing some gardening when we heard a rustling in the bushes that border the south side of our property. As we approached, the rustling ceased. We peered into the bushes but could see nothing to explain the sound. We turned away only to hear the rustling start again.This time Susan crawled into the bushes and emerged with a baby Hairy Woodpecker! The little thing couldn't have been more than a week old. We looked around but couldn't find where she might have come from. Needless to say, the poor thing needed some help so we brought her inside.

We have five parrots in our family, along with the requisite paraphernalia such as carrying cases and spare cages. We put the baby in one of the carrying cases and quickly outfitted a spare cage with what we thought might make a baby woodpecker comfortable. Baby parrots eat something called "mash", a powdered food rich in nutrients that help the youngster grow and develop. We went to the local pet store and purchased some freeze-dried bloodworms to mix in with the mash. Mmmm!

Woody on Screen

Our young charge seemed pretty happy with the arrangements and grew very quickly over the coming weeks. Most of our parrots were fine with the new addition, but Ruby, our Green-Cheek Conure, was quite mad at us for allowing an interloper into her room. Soon the baby was happily flying around the bird room and was quite comfortable with us handling her.

As time went on and the woodpecker grew, it was obvious the little thing was getting ready to leave. She grew more anxious when we approached her cage, and when free in the room she hung around the glass doors as if to say "Let me out!". We realized the time had come to release her back into the wild.

We bundled her into the carrying case and brought her the the edge of the woods at the back of our property. We slowly opened the box and backed away, expecting her to grab this chance at escape. She hopped onto the rim of the box and just stood there looking at us. We actually had to encourage her to fly away, and even then she just chose a nearby tree and clung there looking down at us. It was a sad moment for all of us, but we knew she was far better off back with her own kind. She eventually flew off and for the following months we imagined she called to us whenever we were out in the yard.

tags: birds rescue woodpecker