The best way to do this is to loosely wrap the bird in a towel and gently place it in a secure and well-ventilated box. Place the box away from noise, pets, children or other disturbances. Do not attempt to feed the bird. Contact your local wildlife rescue organisation who will be able to provide further advice.
Do not try to force feed or give water to the bird. Take the bird outside and open the box every fifteen minutues to see if it is able to fly away. If it is still staying put after a few hours, you can try to find a local wildlife rehabilitator. Click here to locate a Wildlife Rehabilitator by county.
If a bird is really injured, consider contacting a licensed wildlife rehabilitator who can make an informed judgment about whether additional care is possible and advise on next steps. Most rehabilitators are volunteers who do this in their spare time, so it may be difficult to reach one immediately.
The bird will generally take 4 to 6 hours to recover from shock if there are no other major medical issues or injuries sustained – if it doesn't – seek advice. While the bird is in shock, don't force it to eat or drink.
Injured bird rescue
Don't ever try to care for the bird yourself. In most cases, the chances of the bird surviving and being released back to the wild are almost non-existent. Only a licensed wildlife rehabilitator has the special equipment and skills to provide the injured bird with proper care.
Many birds are able to fly off after window collisions, but if they are knocked out or stunned and on the ground they should be gently picked up and placed in a warm, dark, sheltered place for at least two hours.
They do. Their feet cool down to near freezing, close to 30°F. Of course, a bird's comfort level for foot temperature is likely very different from ours; they would not feel uncomfortable until the point when damage occurs from freezing (ice crystal formation).
Check the legs and feet for stiffness. The muscles in the legs and feet of dead birds will be stiff while birds that are just stunned will still have relaxed muscles in their feet and legs. Check the eyes. If you can see no blinking or movement in the bird's eyes, then it is probably dead.
Birds can quench their thirst by eating snow, but this requires large amounts of energy which they need to keep themselves warm.
Birds can be very resilient, and I've seen birds recover completely from partial or total paralysis.
These include trauma, lead poisoning, swollen kidneys, heavy metal poisoning, organophosphate poisoning, nutritional deficiencies and bacterial infections. Other causes of paralysis may be due to generalised weakness from septicaemia, parasites and/or metabolic disease.
An injured bird should always be passed onto a local vet, RSPCA in England and Wales, SSPCA in Scotland, USPCA in Northern Ireland or an independent rescue centre, so it can receive appropriate treatment without undue delay.
The muscle becomes rigid and the bird becomes stiff, which is rigor mortis. Rigor mortis development in poultry is rapid (one to 3 h in chickens and turkeys) compared to other species (12 to 24 h in beef) [11].
Birds are routinely seen as portents of impending calamity and death, while they are also often thought to bear away or steal spirits of the dead, sometimes even embodying those very spirits themselves. On the other hand, birds are also commonly associated with life, fertility, and longevity.
If you find a sick or injured bird, contact a wildlife rehabilitator or local veterinarian to see if they are able to care for it. Make sure you call first as some clinics don't have the facilities to isolate sick birds, and can't take the risk of spreading a communicable disease among their other birds.
Birds (especially larger parrots) can generally tolerate temperatures as low as the 50s, but once the thermometer drops below that, they may get fluffed up (expending all of their energy trying to trap warm air between their feathers and their bodies to keep warm) and stop eating.
Cavity nesters like nuthatches, titmice and downy woodpeckers use tree cavities and nest boxes to stay warm. Cavities and boxes provide protection from the weather and help birds hide from predators. Larger birds like American crows and ring-billed gulls are also known to flock together for warmth.
It is natural to want to help every window collision victim, but there are some steps birders should never take, even with the best intentions. Do not offer food or water to an injured bird. Birds have very specific diets, and an injured bird needs a quiet, calm environment to recover.
Give The Bird Recovery time
It would usually take 2-3 hours for a bird, especially if stunned, to fully recover, so just be very patient here.
What happens to birds that hit windows? Sadly, the bird often dies, even when it is only temporarily stunned and manages to fly away. Many times these birds die later from internal bleeding or bruising, especially on the brain.
The best way to do this is to loosely wrap the bird in a towel and gently place it in a secure and well-ventilated box. Place the box away from noise, pets, children or other disturbances. Do not attempt to feed the bird. Contact your local wildlife rescue organisation who will be able to provide further advice.
From transduction to transmission, modulation, projection, and perception, birds possess the neurologic components necessary to respond to painful stimuli and they likely perceive pain in a manner similar to mammals.