Since January 2007, Thailand’s Kasetsart University Raptor Rehabilitation Centre, in partnership with the Bird Conservation Society of Thailand and the Thai Raptor Group, has launched an “Adopt a Raptor” programme.

The scheme was started when a Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus) was found exhausted in south-east Thailand in early January 2007 and handed over to Dr Chaiyan Kasorndorkbua of Kasetsart University.

Around the same time, four Himalayan Griffons (Gyps himalayensis) were caught in various locations in southern Thailand (top). They were likely members of a flock of five that were earlier seen at Doi Lang in mid-December 2006. All four eventually found their way to the Kasetsart University Raptor Rehabilitation Center.

Plans to release the Cinereous in South Korea was not possible due to a number of reasons. As such, it was released, together with the four Himalayan on 10th May 2007 along the Thailand-Myanmar border in Chiang Mai province (above).

The Centre continues to rescue injured or weakened raptors, especially vagrants that stray during migratory flights. Rescued birds are cared for until they regain their health and vigour. They are then tagged with a leg band, wing tag (left) or satellite telemetry prior to release to enable subsequent monitoring of their movements. Release will be done at the appropriate habitats and seasons to ensure maximum possible survival chances.

To participate in this “Adopt-a-Raptor” programme, contact Ms. Pajaree Intravooth, Assistant to the Executive Director, Bird Conservation Society of Thailand (e-mail: pajaree@bcst.or.th). A nominal sum to cover food, medical and other expenses is all that is expected.

A video clip showing the actual release can be seen HERE.

All images courtesy of Thai Raptor Group.

What would you do if you come across a helpless chick on the ground, crying softly to its parents? Would you simply walk away? Would you pick it up and look after it, or seek out someone to do so?

Many people believe that the chick will die as it has been displaced from its nest. And they will pick it up and take it away. But what exactly is the situation?

Most chicks when they first leave their nest, or what birders call fledge, are just learning to fly. The may end up on the ground but the adults will always be around to feed and encourage them on. You may not see the aduls but they are there somewhere. But once you pick it up and take it away, the parents will not be able to look after it.

Chicks may also accidentally fall out of the nest. These will be younger chicks that are a long way to fledgling. Sometimes they may be pushed out by their siblings. Invariably, these younger chicks will not survive if left on the ground. This will be a slightly different situation from the fledging chicks discussed above.

So what should you do? If the chick is fully feathered and can run away and flap its wings, the best thing to do is leave it alone. If necessary, pick it up carefully and replace it back to the nest if you can locate it or if it is within your means to do so. If not, place it somewhere above ground - on a twig, on the roof of a nearby shed, in an open box above ground or anywhere that it cannot be easily trampled or snatched by a passing cat. The parents will easily locate it and take over.

Taking the chick home to look after it may not be the best thing to do. For one, it is a full time job. It needs to be fed a few times an hour throughout the day. Only at night will you get any peace. And even if you succeed in raising the chick to eventually release it, are you sure that it can adapt to a free adult life?

Calvin Simonds, in his 2000 book, Private Lives of Garden Birds (Storey Books), in his aside entitled “A bird in the bush is worth two in the hands” has this to say:

“The fledgling period is an important period of training for the young birds, one in which they learn from their parents what they should eat and what dangers they should look out for. Male fledglings even learn something about how to sing. Even with all their natural training, young birds have a terrible time making it through their first year. Do you really, honesty, think your ignorant, hand-raised baby could survive?”

I have been foster parent to three chicks now, a Little Heron (Butorides striatus) (top) and recently, two Javan Mynas. These were given to me well after they were picked up. The heron was eventually released; one of the mynas was subsequently predated by a cat (above left) while the other successfully fledged (above right). What happens after release is anybody’s guess.

The pair of Malayan Whistling Thrush chicks that was nesting in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia fledged naturally. Their first flight out of the nest landed them on the ground of the warehouse where the nest was built. They were hopping about and the adults were around them all the time. To ensure that the fledged birds were safe from wandering dogs, they were put in a box and left outside the warehouse. Within two days they were flying around and the adults were busily feeding them. Now what woul happen if a concerned person took them away to look after them?

Now, would you still pick up a seemingly helpless chick should you come across it?

The Javan Myna (Acridotheres javanicus) chick picked up by Gloria Seow and raised by me since 18th March 2008 was keenly aware of its surroundings. Whenever it heard bird calling from the garden, it fluttered excitedly around its cage trying to get out.

Obviously it was about to fledge. Its wing feathers were fully developed; it regularly exercised its wings, flapping and stretching them; and it had begun to actively preen its feathers.

In an effort to encourage it to feed itself, I stopped hand-feeding it and left some food inside the cage. Out of hunger it finally pecked at the food after about an hour or so.

Encouraged by its ability to feed itself, I took it out of its cage on 21st March and placed it on a low branch of a tree (left). It remained there for the next two hours until I tried to return it to its cage. Moving from branch to branch, it finally jumped down and ran from one end of the garden to the other.

Finally cornered, it took shelter inside a small patch of low growth selaginella. Crouching low and remaining dead-still within the patch, even when I was physically parting the plants, I nearly overlooked it. But it was there all right, a still black blob not moving an inch.

Its loud screeching when handled attracted the attention of a pair of adult Javan Mynas that flew in to investigate.

The bird remained inside the cage for another day after which I again tried to set it free. Leaving the cage about a metre and a half from the ground with the door opened (left top), the bird took about half an hour before it finally realised that freedom was a few centimeters away.

Jumping onto the open door (left middle), it immediately flew off towards the nearby branched (left bottom). I was sure that it landed on the branches but apparently I was wrong. It was nowhere on the small tree. It must have landed on the ground and ran off.

I failed to locate it after a thorough search of the garden. Knowing its ability to remain still and blend in with its surroundings, I realised the futility of locating the fledgling.

My only hope is that it does not end up inside the neighbour’s cat.

When Gloria heard what happened to the chick, she wrote: “… its OK if you can’t find it. We will have to assume that it flew away and is a happy and free bird now. I’m just glad that it has begun to peck (eat) on its own without you having to stuff food into its mouth… so I’ll presume that it can start hunting for its own food.

“Anyway, flight is instinctive, so I believe that if it is a healthy bird, it should be able to outfly any cat. Hopefully though, the bird will return to your garden somehow… or hang around your estate… so that you can monitor if it has any attachment to your home at all, and any strange behaviour in relation to this man-bird relationship ecology.”

Well, the bird has yet to return. And it has been more than two weeks now. At the advanced age it was picked up, it would not be tame enough to return after release. Hopefully, it is now moving around with other Javan Mynas.

The posting of the Javan Myna (Acridotheres javanicus) chick attracted the attention of Gloria Seow. She had just picked up a myna chick displaced from its nest and contacted me. I reluctantly accepted it after the tragic end to the earlier one.

On the evening of 18th March 2007, the chick was delivered. This time around, I got a proper cage, after being made painfully aware of the dangers posed by neighbouring cats. This was a right decision as on the evening it was transferred to the cage, I found the same cat that took my earlier myna sitting patiently below, thinking of its dinner (left).

The current myna chick is a few days to fledging. The wing feathers are all fully developed. So are the tail feathers. The yellow oral flanges are turning whitish. It has also been exercising its wings. The bird can stand and hop around. In fact it did run away when I placed it on the ground.

It is well aware of the calls of the birds around, even those of the Yellow-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier). It listens intently and at times even scrambling around the cage excitedly.

However, it still needs to be hand-fed. Only then will it gape widely for food to be introduced into the mouth. Initially this was accompanied with high pitch screeching but not so now. It appears to recognise me and is more relaxed, allowing me to remove it from the cage for feeding. This is unlike the earlier chick that willingly gaped for feeding.

And unlike the other chick, this one does not beg for food when hungry. It remains quiet most of the time, except in the beginning when it panicked when approached. Another difference is that it has no confident perching on a branch, unlike its younger counterpart.

Although about to fledge, it still needs to be hand-fed. It has yet to learn how to pick up food to feed itself. Without this skill, it will be difficult to survive when released.

Now how do I teach it to handle its own food?

On 6th March 2008, the rescued Javan Myna (Acridotheres javanicus) chick was under care for a total of 14 days. It has been eating regularly, in fact every two to three hours except at night when it was placed in an enclosed cardboard box that was kept indoors.

The wing feathers were fully developed and the chick was exercising its wings regularly. But it was not ready to fly. It was even not confident of jumping down from the piece of wood I placed on top of the box when left by itself.

On this fateful evening, it had just finished its bath in a basin filled with a few centimetres of water. After the bath that took only a few minutes, I placed it on the ground where it did a little fluffing to rid excess water and then preened a little.

It was not experienced enough to totally dry itself by shaking its body and fluffing its feathers, so I placed it back on its perch at the top of the box (above). There I left it, with the box just outside my main door so that I could keep an eye on it.

I went indoors for a while when suddenly I heard a sharp screech, followed by silence. Suspecting something might have happened to the bird, I rushed outside and found it gone.

Searching the garden, I came across my neighbour’s cat at the back. At its feet was the dead myna chick (left).

Apparently the cat must have walked into my garden and spotted to myna. It must have crept slowly towards it before suddenly pouncing on the poor chick. The attack must have been sudden, otherwise the chick would have made a series of cries and jumped off its perch. This it did a day earlier when a pair of adult noisy Javan Mynas strayed too near to where it was perching. The chick then jumped down and hid among the flower pots.

A sad ending to a sad story of a birdling apparently pushed out of its nest by its sibling. Or did it accidentally fall from the nest?