Broken Wing Help?

[tsmarie]

I found a wild male house finch on Saturday. He had no obvious injuries but could not fly. I thought perhaps he was just dehydrated and brought him home for some quiet r & r, but by the time I got him into our small pet carrier, I could see he had a bit of blood in his beak. At that point, I began to suspect he had an impact injury. I kept him in the carrier with food and water (haven't seen him drink, but he is definitely eating). He seemed spunky and OK, and after 24 hours, I brought him outside to release, but he still cannot fly. As he was walking around, I noticed he is holding one wing slightly lower than the other. It is not dragging on the ground or otherwise obviously broken, but I am beginning to think there must be a break in there somewhere.

Unfortunately, there are no rehabilitation facilities within 2 1/2 hours of where I live. I have zero experience with any sort of rehabilitation, and am wondering what your finch community would recommend. Should I just allow the wing to heal on its own? Should I try to wrap it in gauze around his body (even though I have no idea what I'm doing)?

[Sally]

Since you don't have a rehab facility available to you, and you don't have experience dealing with finches, either wild or captive, my opinion would be to keep the bird in your possession for now but let the wing heal on its own. You can provide some therapeutic heat with a 40-60w bulb in a gooseneck desk lamp aimed at one side of the cage/container that you have for the bird, so he can escape from the heat if needed. A wild finch seed mix and a small bowl of water will do for now, though you could offer some greens such as romaine lettuce, kale, a slice of cucumber.

Good luck with this! We do have a few members that have worked with wild birds, so hopefully they will see this and can give you some better advice.

[tsmarie]

Thanks so much for your advice, Sally. I was really nervous about the possibility of having to wrap the wing, and what would happen if I got it wrong. I will just let him have some quiet r & r for a couple of weeks and then see how he does at that time.

Thanks for suggesting the greens, also! I had no idea that finches ate anything other than seeds, but I have a garden full of kale right now and will definitely give him some to try!