What kind of bird is this?
The cat drug in a baby bird this morning (in Kansas we say “drug” not “dragged.”) I grabbed the cat, made him let go, then went and got my husband to deal with the rest. He caught the baby and let it go. Then he came to me and said, “That’s not a bird! It’s a chicken!”
“A chicken??”
Rick said, “Yeah…it’s got some big ol’ long legs!”
“Wait…a chicken is a bird. But you said it’s not a bird. Is it a giraffe?”
“No!...You know what I mean!”
“But where would a chicken come from??” We live in town, in a residential community.
“I don’t know!” He said.
So then he went and recaptured it and we stuck it in a box…It’s definitely not a giraffe, but it sure has some big old long legs, and some big, huge dinosaur feet too, and we’re wondering what to feed it. And will he stay in our yard? And will the cat eat him? Can he sleep with us at night? Can we potty train him? Where did he come from? Above all, IS it a chicken?
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Looks like the bastard offspring of a chicken & an ostrich, I wonder who was on top?
Or a chicken and a dinosaur.
Could it be an ostrich???
Stick some sand in there, if it buries it’s head it’s either an ostrich or a shy chicken.
I googled baby chickens and baby ostrich. Doesn’t look like either….this really IS a mystery.
I don’t know! That’s why I’m asking. Going to google now.
If it were a gosling, wouldn’t it have webbed feet?
Possibly a baby game bird, such as a pheasant, quail, grouse or partridge. Google for images.
You can buy baby bird food down at the pet store. It’s sort of generic. That would take care of the food thing until you figure it out. If you can’t get it to eat on its own, you can mix the stuff up with water, and force its mouth open and feed it with an eye dropper. I’ve raised/rescued a lot of baby birds this way.
If you’re in the US, you might also call your local extension service and ask them. They are always attached to a university and are stocked with experts on every subject under the sun. Let me know if you can’t find one close to you.
No…it doesn’t have webbed feet.
I think @gailcalled is on to something with the hawk idea. If you look at pictures of baby hawks, there are some species of hawk that look similar to your picture. Perhaps someone at a local university (if they have a department that deals with wildlife) would be able to properly identify it.
Can’t say what kind it is…does look like a cross between a chicken and…another kinda chicken. Don’t know. It’s cool that you guys saved it and all, as the mother probably won’t ever take him back, even if you could actually find her.
Looking at it again, it looks like maybe a falcon or buzzard…I had a book on birds as a kid, so i’m quite the expert…not!!
@Dutchess_III: Send the picture to the ornithology department at the U. of Kansas, Biodiversity Center.
http://ornithology.biodiversity.ku.edu/about/contact
Our local Cornell U. extension center loves helping us with flora and fauna question. They even have a drop-box where you can leave any mysterious insect along with contact info.
But what the hell do I do with him???
Email sent @gailcalled.
This is getting more and more interesting.
Those are some scary feet!
Looks gallinaceous—chicken, turkey, pheasant, something like that. Maybe keep him warm and leave some seeds and bugs for him to eat…? don’t know much about Kansas fowl, sorry Yeah, they kind of grow into their feet, like puppies. Look a bit comical in the meantime, though, don’t they?
His feet looks like he’s gonna be 9 foot tall! He’s in my bathtub.
A baby turkey has a flesh bump above its little beak.
Like this
I can’t tell from your picture whether the bird has one.
But, @snowberry‘s guess seems like the closest to the photo.
The size of the feet make me think it might be a turkey chick, but it’s definitely a fowl. Regardless, he needs heat (a heat lamp), water and food.
Doesn’t look like raptor feet/claws, or beak… I’m with @peridot on this one, if not a chicken, then some similar kind of fowl. You could get some game bird feed for it.
@glacial That does look right. WHERE DID A CHICKEN COME FROM??
My husband says chicken. He use to raise chickens when he was younger.
@Dutchess_III I’d say “The egg”, but I suspect that would open a huge, volatile debate.
lol @glacial! Should we get a vid of him crossing the road?
Absolutely! And include straw-poll interviews with passersby:
“Why do you think he did it? What could have been going through his tiny bird brain at that moment?”
“I was running away from the freakin’ cat!”
I do not know, but it does look delicious.
I gasped! How cute!
I don’t know what it is, but does look like the baby turkeys posted above. Following this in hopes that you’ll update us.
We did everything we could think of. He had food, water, and for a source of heat we found a heating pad, and draped it down the back of his cage. When we went to bed he was huddled next to the pad.
Checked on him this morning and he’s dead. So sad.
Alev hasholem. You did your very best, however. Maybe a nice little burial and an annual plant, like a red geranium, on top?
We’ll bury him at the pet cemetery out at our land where we have a cat (Smoky) and a snake (My son’s boa) buried. We have tulips growing there too. (I’m going to get scared to camp there soon,though.)
Wait….did you just call me an ‘ass holeum’ @gailcalled???
@Dutchess_III Aw man, that sucks. :( Did he eat any of the food? Baby birds get fed by their mothers, maybe he was too young to feed himself.
I don’t know if he ate. He was pecking around on the bottom of his cage yesterday though.
Yes, it sucks. I guess the cat did damage that we couldn’t see.
I feel a Monty Python sketch coming ~
I know. I looked it up. Just messin’ with you!
Oh, that is sad! I was rather hoping he might become your pet house-chicken.
Yeah. Me too. I think he just got cold….. sniff.
Well…baby birds are fragile. Baby anythings are fragile. Maybe he got internal damage from the cat, as you say, maybe his nerves just couldn’t stand the attack, even if he was physically fine, maybe he couldn’t feed himself, maybe he did get cold. But you did your best.
Maybe the fluther squid cursed the poor lil bugger :(
@gailcalled The KU Orinthology dept said it was a baby blue jay.
Aaaaan…the stupid cat just brought in a baby robin. Crap.
That was a blue jay chick?
O_o
That’s what they said. He seemed awful big, though.
Are you going to give it a religious burial?
Well, it was sacrificial, actually. :( To the Cat God. :( STUPID CAT.
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