I found this bird on the ground this morning near the beach, and took it home, if only to give it a quiet place to die without being terrorized by kids, cats and a dogs.

I gave it some water but it didn’t seem too keen on ants, so I left it all day and came back expecting to see it dead, but it was in better shape than when I'd left it.

I fed it some milk through a straw, and suddenly it perked up, chirruped and flew off my balcony, wheeling through the air like an old pro.

So I’m guessing it had just come off a long haul flight and was knackered when I found it. After it had slept all day, and had some milk, it was off to play dogfights with insects

Any idea what kind of bird it was? A Swift?

Edited January 30, 201016 yr by sharecropper

A Swift i would say, i had near the exact same experience yesterday, i managed to pick the little bugger off the ground before the dogs got it, and after about 10 mins resting on the wall it took off - no apparent damage and none the worse.

I felt good about my good deed for the day !!

In the first picture - is that the straw you used, or some sort of bird-beak removal device?

Yep a Swift it is!!!

Well done a lot of people would just have left it! Or it would have ended up on a B-B-Q

How CUTE! (Sorry, cant help myself, i go all mushy at stuff like that ).

I love that first picture. His/her expression is priceless.

Nice job sharecropper. Lovely that you were so kind and considerate.

In the first picture - is that the straw you used, or some sort of bird-beak removal device?

It was a straw, with milk in the bottom bit, which I dropped onto its beak.

About 1 minute after taking that photo it was gone. Didn't even thank me.

Good show Croppy

However

I gave it some water

This is good

I fed it some milk through a straw,

This is not so good, it is a little like feeding Hedgehogs milk, neither have the digestive system to cope with milk.

How CUTE! (Sorry, cant help myself, i go all mushy at stuff like that ).

I love that first picture. His/her expression is priceless.

Nice job sharecropper. Lovely that you were so kind and considerate.

Just for you - a clearer photo of it.

I think it was thinking "this forcefeeding is all very well, but where's the flies"?

Good show Croppy

However

I gave it some water

This is good

I fed it some milk through a straw,

This is not so good, it is a little like feeding Hedgehogs milk, neither have the digestive system to cope with milk.

Maybe that's why it cleared off fast when the milk came out.

Well done Sharecropper was it low fat milk?

Do you have any reflective windows around?

We have large reflective glass windows and the birds are always flying into them, usually in the morning, we pick them up and they sit there for a while then fly off.

Never thought of giving them milk though.

Well done Sharecropper was it low fat milk?

Do you have any reflective windows around?

We have large reflective glass windows and the birds are always flying into them, usually in the morning, we pick them up and they sit there for a while then fly off.

Never thought of giving them milk though.

It was fat free (like my good self).

It was either milk or Chang, but I managed to save the beer.

Looks like the migratory Pacific Swift (coming down from China, Japan and Siberia) rather than the resident House Swift whose nests can be seen on many high rise buildings amongst other places around Thailand. If I am right it could have been heading back up north.

Surprised it survived. Normally they are dead meat.

You will be reincarnated as a Swift!

How CUTE! (Sorry, cant help myself, i go all mushy at stuff like that ).

I love that first picture. His/her expression is priceless.

Nice job sharecropper. Lovely that you were so kind and considerate.

Just for you - a clearer photo of it.

I think it was thinking "this forcefeeding is all very well, but where's the flies"?

Thank you thank you!

Well done Sharecropper was it low fat milk?

Do you have any reflective windows around?

We have large reflective glass windows and the birds are always flying into them, usually in the morning, we pick them up and they sit there for a while then fly off.

Never thought of giving them milk though.

Rimmer, a relative had the same problem with birds as she had some large glass sliding doors. The situation was helped after she put some window stickers up. May not be what you want to do though. But maybe some plants or something in front of the windows where there seems to be the biggest problem will help them realise that there is something there.

Well done! Helping one of nature's little creatures.

TheWalkingMan

Looks like the migratory Pacific Swift (coming down from China, Japan and Siberia) rather than the resident House Swift whose nests can be seen on many high rise buildings amongst other places around Thailand. If I am right it could have been heading back up north.

Surprised it survived. Normally they are dead meat.

Thanks.

When I told my wife what was happening by phone she said "be careful of bird flu".

I replied "if this bird flew I'd be delighted"!

It could have been a Queensland Swift ,just arrived from coolangatta with airasia,via sydney,melbourne darwin and KL , that trip is enuf to knacker anything

Here's another bird ID question. Any bird watchers out there know what these are called? I can't put a name to them.

hero.

I can't put a name to them.

Its an Indian Roller

(or Nok Takarb Thoong, in spoken Thai)

You're quite right. That's what it is. Affinis subspecies.