This year the baby corvids once again brought diversity and many emotions in the baby room of the Rescue Centre, constantly screaming for attention. They are a real natural alarm, as they loudly announce every entrance in the premises. The always-hungry youngsters were given delicious delicacies several times per day and water was changed very often as the crave of the corvid babies for tidiness can hardly be described and water was constantly spilt during bathing. Their love for baths could only be compared to their passion for scattering food all over the floor of the cage and turning it into an unrecognizable pigsty just moments after its thorough cleaning.
Quite a lot of people embrace the I-raise-a-corvid-baby adventure every year, in an attempt to help. However, without proper knowledge and with limited possibilities for home rearing, it turns out that they more often simply delay the inevitable death of the creature. Usually such babies arrive with all damaged feathers or already very tame. Birds with damaged feathers sometimes have to stay months longer than necessary, just to secure time for the feathers to get replaced with new ones to allow them to fly.
Taming is also a major problem and often makes the release of hand-reared Corvids in nature impossible, especially for birds raised in home environment, close to people and away from other birds of its species. We recently got a baby Magpie, sent by a woman who found another Magpie last year and in an attempt to help it, raised it with love and care. It was all good until the time she decided to release the grown bird. In front of her eyes, the bird, raised with so much effort and feeling, was killed by other Magpies. This is due to the fact that, while growing, the little Magpie did not get the chance to learn the habits, behavior and even the language of its own species. In addition to that, it had no family group to protect it. This turned it into a foreigner and an intruder among the other Magpies. It does not consider itself a bird either and often such imprinted birds provoke such behavior, being aggressive towards their own kind.
Family is really important for Corvid birds. Without family they are no one. When raised by us, they form their own family groups with the other baby Corvids and thus, even without the presence of an adult bird in the family, feel the support and security of the group, giving them a much higher chance of survival.
Having said that all, should you find a Corvid baby, please do not hesitate to send it to us as soon as possible. Do not wait for a week or two until you get bored with it, as every single day decreases its chances into the wild.
RELEASE
The young Hooded Crows and Rooks raised by us, first spent some time in a big aviary, together with adult crows, our long-term patients with permanent injures, which cannot be released. They were placed there to gain confidence in flying and forming a solid family group. Released directly from the aviary, they stayed in the area, often perching on the netting, communicating with the crows which remained inside, while spending the night on the big Chestnut Tree nearby or on the aviary. Several days following the release they already do not allow people approach them as close as they used to.
The Jackdaws and Magpies, well-known bandits, first spent some time in the aviary of the other Corvids and were then moved to a big pen close to the food preparation table in the yard. Once the pen was opened, the birds remained inside for some time, coming in and out all the time. They had secured food until they got used to finding their own sources and gradually increased the distance they let people come near. They are still coming to eat from the food we are leaving them, yet they do not tolerate us being close. They can also enter and pick food from the big aviary with the other Corvids as the netting has big enough openings.
Jays, being a more forest species, were released in a wonderful wood near Stara Zagora. They flew out like colourful bullets and it really looks like they will have no problems surviving into the wild.
We are very grateful to the people, who trusted us the baby Corvids they found: Denitsa Kovacheva, Maya Nikolaeva, Donka Lazarcheva, Elitsa Kovacheva, Katerina Draganova, Petko Petkov, Adriana Petrova, Ilian Stoyanov, Rumyana Ivanova, Katya Kavaldjieva, Petar Boyadjiev, Ilian Todorov, Nina LAzarova, Stilian Paskalev, Petya Merdjanova, Nencho Balabanov, Ivo Ivanov, Mariana Angelova, Georgi Krustev, Viktoria Kovacheva, Lili Tsvetkova, Ivan Mirchev, Dinko Kojuharov, A. Kosacheva, Jivka from the English Language High School – Plovdiv, as well as to our colleagues from RIEW Sofia and RIEW Blagoevgrad, who assisted the transportation of some of the babies.
Several Hooded Crows and Rooks will remain with us until they change their damaged feathers with new ones and will then be released.
Baby room staff:
Krasen Lazarov
phone: + 359 884 15 44 85
e-mail: klazarov@greenbalkans-wrbc.org
Pavlina Nikolova
phone: + 359 884 18 66 54
e-mail: pnikolova@greenbalkans-wrbc.org
Venelin Hristov
phone: + 359 885 13 88 11
e-mail: vhristov@greenbalkans-wrbc.org
Text:Liubomira Krivoshieva - Wildlife Rehabilitator
Wildlife Rescue Centre - Green Balkans
phone: + 359 885 22 84 86
e-mail: lkrivoshieva@greenbalkans-wrbc.org
