Rescued Hummingbird and Junco



My friend found this video on you tube and posted it on Facebook.  I watched it this morning after having a bird rescue experience of my own yesterday afternoon.  It's so sweet to watch human caretakers nurse an injured baby hummingbird back to health.  Also, it is so interesting for me to see the kinds of attachments animals of all kinds form with one another.

Gilligan, my cat, brought a Junco into the house through the cat door and proceeded to drop it on the floor next to me as I was making a butternut squash casserole.  I hoped it wasn't dead and it was not.  It picked itself up and flew into a few windows as Gilligan chased it, hot in pursuit.  Luckily I grabbed Gilligan just before he got the bird between his teeth again, put him in the bathroom and firmly shut the door behind me as I went out to the living room to look for the poor, distressed bird.  I shut all the doors in the house but couldn't find the bird.  Where did it go?  I went back to the casserole I was making as Una, my female cat, came in through the cat door.  Then the Junco jumped up from behind the coach and perched itself on the window sill above it.  Una zoned in as I caught her just in time to put her in my second bedroom.  The poor bird was panting and covered in the dust bunnies it picked up when it disappeared behind the couch.  It let me gently take it in my hands and laid there with its eyes half closed as it caught it's breath with one foot firmly gripping my pinky as if to hold on for dear life.  I inspected it for puncture wounds, blood, ect. but it looked okay other then missing a number or feathers from it's tail and back.  I just stood in my living room for a few moments holding this warm, light, soft being in my hand and looked into its bright, shining eye as I sent wishes to it, praying it would be okay and survive this trauma.  I took it outside to a Hemlock tree near where a flock or Juncos were hanging out and gently positioned its feet on a small branch in the tree.  It held on, standing there breathing and resting as I walked away to give it space to fly off when it was ready to be with the flock.