How I rescued a white-cheeked barbet
It was a rainy day on 14th June 2021, around 6 pm. Monsoon had just started 10 days ago and the downpour had just stopped. I took a break from my work (work from home) and went outside of my home for some fresh air. My mother noticed this little bird sitting under our gate, almost wet and shivering. She asked me not to touch the bird but I took it inside our pump house thinking it might need some rest or a warm place to protect itself from rain but soon after it started making kutroo kutroo sound and came out of that place back to open air. It tried to climb a wooden log but it could not as it had no strength to use its wings.
I realised this needs care, and took a photo of the bird and with the help of Google Lens, I was able to identify the bird as a White-cheeked barbet. Technology simplifies many things. This bird would need more care to fly at this condition, so with the help of a small cloth I took it inside and I made a small nest for the bird using a thermocol box ( For keeping heat inside) and a cardboard box inside with cloth and newspaper linings.
I started searching for information about the rescue of the bird, luckily I found an article titled, Barbet Rescue: Hand-rearing a Fallen Chick on HubPages. Surprisingly, this article was written on June 2nd 2021. The author Deepa had mentioned how she took care of the same bird till its complete recovery. This is why documenting things online is helpful. Especially if the content involves something like this.
Through that article, I got to know that our birdie is frugivorous and will eat fruits and small insects. The author had also mentioned that it eats bananas. Luckily we had homegrown bananas from our backyard which we call putt baLe in Kannada or Elakki baLe in and around Karnataka. I mashed one small piece of banana and with the help of a stick, I was able to feed the bird. Looks like it was starving. It quickly ate whatever was there at the end of the toothpick sized stick. It was about 2 pumpkin seeds sized mashed bananas. Then I gave a little bit of water with the help of a small cup that comes along with the cough syrup. With the help of the blog, I learned that I should not give more water to this bird as it can lead to digestion issues.
I noticed it was not even trying to move from the box and was quietly sitting on the box looking around before eating the food. After finishing around ¼ banana it started moving and climbed on my shoulder.
Later that day I put the birdie in the box and it went to sleep after making kutroo noise for around 5 mins. It was around 11 pm. I have time information from the timestamps of photos and videos I took that day.
Day 2: June 15 2021
I woke up and went to see what birdie was doing, it was already awake and was roaming around the house pooping, marking territories and finishing its normal work. Yeah this will be an issue if you are planning to have pet birds, they poop very small amounts but multiple times :).
For breakfast, I got some banana with water for the birdie and it happily finished another ¼ banana and started moving around the house. Now that the wings are completely dried it was trying to fly and it was using its wings to fly to small heights like climbing the bench etc. So I thought this birdie will fly away once its wings are strong. So I took him outside and kept him on the wire where we hang our clothes. The bird was enjoying the sunlight which had just arrived after heavy torrential rain.
After some time it started raining again and the birdie entered the home all by itself (It would have been easier to fly downward as it was already at a height) I put it back in the box and it made noise for some time and became silent. By the way, it decorated the walls of the cardboard box with its poop by sitting on different sides of the box. I replaced the newspaper beds many times. Later I realised that this will be continued till the birdie is strong enough to fly back to its nest. I decided to switch the paper sheets to plastic once as it will be easier for me to wash and clean them.
I found one youtube video about the Barbet rescue where they showed the fruits like berries, tomatoes etc, so I got some finely chopped tomatoes(about the size of half peas) and the birdie was eagerly waiting for lunch. It was as enthusiastic as before to eat the food from the stick. Keep in mind that if you try to feed it with your finger it will not be able to eat because your finger will be big enough to go inside its mouth. So make sure you use something small like a toothpick, small spatula or even tweezers. The only difference with this food was the poop was red where it was yellow before. Make sure its stool is neither completely liquid nor too solid, in those cases you may need to get advice from the vet.
Meanwhile, I visited the Kundapura Forest Department office for the leads on the rescue centre so that the birdie gets proper care. They asked me to contact the range office for the same. I wasn’t able to get hold of the Range office as the telephone was out of order. So I finally wrote an email to the Karnataka Forest Department office, Kundapura stating the details of the bird and requesting the leads on the rescue centre. Fortunately, they replied after an hour asking for the details of the location and the phone number. I quickly mailed the details back to them expecting the call on the same day. But there was no response on that day.
So I took the birdie out again at around 6 and now it was flying from the ground to the hibiscus plants which are at the height of around 1m. It was covering a flight distance of around 1.5m (upwards!!). But it could not practice more flight tests due to intermittent rain here. Later that day, I gave the birdie tomato pieces and mashed bananas with a little water. It was very active that night.
Day 3: 16 June 2021
It was awake early and was making kutroo kutroo noise. From the noise itself, many local people call it “Gutru hakki” in Kannada. There is also an interesting folk story involving this bird which I got to know while researching for the rescue of the birdie.
I fed the birdie tomato pieces in the morning and it had around 20 small cubes of tomato which are about the size of half peas. But this time it was pecking from the bowl on its own. I realised that this is a good sign and took it out for its practice flight tests. It was actively climbing and descending a few hibiscus plants in front of our house and was enjoying the weather by drinking the water stored at the end of the leaves. After a few minutes of playing it entered our house back and was roaming around. I was just observing everything from a close distance.
After a while, it went back and sat on our scooter and was looking around making kutroo noise. To encash this opportunity one street cat tried to attack our birdie and at the very moment, the birdie used its maximum potential to reach the highest tree nearby. By this event maybe it realised its potential that it can fly back to its nest and it did the same and never came back. In a way everyone is like this, sometimes we never know we have potential unless and until there are events that make us use our potential to achieve something.
About an hour later a rescue team from the forest department called to enquire about the location, and I happily told them it got recovered and flew away a while ago.
Since the weather here is humid and the average temperature is around 28 degrees Celcius it was not necessary for me to keep a heating setup like an incandescent bulb nearby, but depending on the environment you are living in you may need that setup. I got a thermocol box from a nearby medical store.
I’m documenting this so that someone gets benefited from this when they are in a similar situation just like how Hubpages helped me to rescue the bird.
If you have come this long, you might be interested to watch the video.
