“I just saw the coolest bird!”
So begin many text messages, emails and Facebook comments in my life. When people who know me spot a bird, they think of me and must tell me immediately. It’s pretty cool.
Such was the case this week when a co-worker of Brian almost stepped on what she called “this big bird that looked like it was chompin’ on sumpin'” on the sidewalk near 5th and Walnut. Brian investigated for me. I never would have guessed from that description that what she found was an American Woodcock.
Whenever I can I prefer to work from life. Sometimes life is dead. This unfortunate woodcock clearly bashed his beak into a building during a nocturnal flight through Philadelphia. His beak was bent and filled with blood, his neck twisted and one of his eyes got pushed up into his skull. Either that or he was a one-eyed woodcock.
In the past I have drawn dead birds that I have found on my family’s property, or in passing on the street. Sometimes I receive dead bird deliveries from well-meaning friends and family who aren’t familiar with the statues of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, which states:
Unless and except as permitted by regulations made as hereinafter provided in this subchapter, it shall be unlawful at any time, by any means or in any manner, to pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill, attempt to take, capture, or kill, possess, offer for sale, sell, offer to barter, barter, offer to purchase, purchase, deliver for shipment, ship, export, import, cause to be shipped, exported, or imported, deliver for transportation, transport or cause to be transported, carry or cause to be carried, or receive for shipment, transportation, carriage, or export, any migratory bird, any part, nest, or egg of any such bird, or any product, whether or not manufactured, which consists, or is composed in whole or part, of any such bird or any part, nest, or egg thereof…
In other words, it is a federal offense for me or anybody to pick up a dead bird and take it home, keep any part of it, or give it to anyone else.
I believe (and someone can correct me on this) that if someone delivers a dead bird to me without my prior knowledge or consent, that I am not at fault. I will be at fault if I keep it. So, in the case of accidental of receipt of dead birds, I either return the bird to its original location, or if that’s not possible, I bury it. But not before taking lots of pictures, and if it’s in good enough shape and not maggoty, drawing it.
Such was the case for this Red-breasted Nuthatch, also a victim of building collision in Philadelphia.
“Lights Out for Birds” programs exist in many cities, with the earliest efforts starting in Chicago, and Toronto. The Delmarva Ornithological Society (which I recently joined) sponsors Lights Out Wilmington in Delaware. I cannot seem to find an equivalent program in Philadelphia. The Zoo and Temple University spread some awareness, it seems, but there is no city-wide effort. If there were one, I would volunteer immediately.
Learn more about how you can prevent bird collisions on your own property as spring migration begins through the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
