I tried to help a goldfinch - but there wasn't enough help
So last night at around 11pm, my partner and I ended up with an European goldfinch - most likely a fledgling - sitting on our balcony, backed into a corner and in a total state of shock. My theory is that it couldn't fly properly, and hit the floor hard enough to cause a serious concussion, then tried to stay as safe as it could while it recovered.
We had zero idea how to handle the situation, and it was too late to call anyone, so we heeded the internet's advice and set up a safe shelter for it - a shoebox with some holes punched into it and a towel laid down, which we took inside and placed in a dim, quiet place, in hopes the bird was just lightly concussed and would be able to sleep it off.
That wasn't the case - in the morning we found the bird awake, huddled in the corner of the box, puffed up and unresponsive. I took the box outside next to a tree where some sparrows usually love to sit, and lifted the lid. After a few minutes it started looking around, but would not move from the corner of the box at all. I waited for 10 more minutes to see if it would try anything, and saw that it had no plans of leaving the box, so I covered it back up and took it back inside.
Plan B was to seek professional help immediately, and that's what I tried to do.
However, it turns out the Romanian government has no resources to rescue and treat injured wildlife. Unless it's large-scale animal abuse or environmental damage, there is no one to call.
So I turned to the NGOs and volunteer groups. I reached out to all the resources available in my area, hoping someone would have the time, capacity and desire to take the poor bird in and give it the help it desperately needed.
One doctor was unfortunately out of the country, and his clinic didn't have capacity to help, especially in his absence. A second doctor never returned my call or responded to my message.
I reached out to the emergency number of a wildlife rehabilitation center, and heard nothing for hours. I called a different center, and got a response, but their only contact in my area was the doctor that is currently out of the country; their center was 3 hours away by train, too stressful for both me and the bird. I called a veterinary clinic, and got a quote for ~25 euro, for a consultation with a spot at 2pm.
I then finally got an answer from the first rehab center, who asked me to try to take the bird outside again. However, at 1:30pm I checked the box, trying to follow the instructions I was given, and I was met with a bird that unfortunately passed away.
It really sucks - I tried to help this poor critter but there just aren't sufficient resources; wildlife is the least of the government's priorities, and NGOs by their nature are never sufficiently staffed nor have the funds and capacity to sustain the demand. Especially with the heatwaves hitting Europe, I'm sure my bird wasn't the only one having accidents this week.
Nobody is at fault here - it just was the wrong timing for everyone involved - but I can't help but feel guilty anyway.
I don't even know what the point of this post is besides to complain, and I guess to grieve a tiny soul that deserved more. Maybe we should all take a moment and appreciate the birds chirping outside. They're beautiful, and we should protect them as much as we can.
Rest in peace, little bird.
I'm not sure if this is a consolation, but: I have a relative who works in animal conservation, and she would point out that, a significant part of the time, those sorts of wildlife rehabilitation groups are going to accept a significantly injured animal and euthanize it as humanely as they can. This isn't a criticism of the groups, it is simply the best option.
Animals in nature die, frequently, and especially when one moves further away from humans, have different life cycles, ways of being injured, ability to recover from injury (in both directions), ability to benefit from human medical intervention, and different levels of human expertise in medical intervention for them. We can and should try to reduce the effects that human development has on wildlife, but trying to medically intervene in individual cases like this can sometimes be futile or even harmful.
Yeah, I'm aware of that, just wanted to get the best solution possible for the little guy.
You did your best, that’s all that you can ask of yourself. I’m proud of you for trying, and I’m sorry your efforts were unsuccessful.
I want to reiterate to you that you did exactly the right thing. We used to have an issue with birds flying into our windows and have successfully used the shoebox advice many times on birds that survived it.
I'm sorry you went through this.
I don't know what the weather is like in Romania currently, but about 10 days ago during the brutal heat wave when it was 37° - 42° C around here, which is extremely rare, there was a lot of this happening around the country and the cause was the heat itself. Birds commonly set up nests at the edges of roofs, in metal gutters etc., which are normally relatively safe, but during the heatwave many became dangerously hot, especially for the young ones, so they would end up jumping off, often even blind, featherless ones, and many would die.
We have a relatively dense network of small private rescue stations, and they were flooded. I know this because it happened at my parents' house and my father drove the two sparrow babies that survived to the nearest one, where he had to wait for an hour because the dude was just picking up a box with like 12 young overheated birds from a different spot. No idea if they survived or not, but they looked viable, so fingers crossed.