Hi there, I’m hoping someone out there knows a heck of a lot more about bird than me
I have a Canada Goose in my backyard. He (she?) is crouched beside the fence. I have no pool or water nearby but there it is. We put a large roughneck container over it, as only half my yard is fenced in and I was worried about cats/dogs bothering it. I put a call into Wildlife Rehab, but I am not sure if they’ll be in tomorrow.
When we approached it with the container it stood up and hissed, but did not flap it’s wings at all, or try to run, even when my DH actually put the bucket over it.
Well, see what Wildlife Rehab can do (I mean, I hope they show up), but otherwise, you have to be sort of hands-off. They are protected (as are most birds) by the Migratory Bird Act–that is, if you’re in Canada or the U.S. They also can be pretty damned aggressive (as you’ve seen).
My family lives on the central flyway and we see geese with their feet frozen or with half their beaks shot off sometimes, still wandering around, or trying to. Damn it’s depressing. Basically you just wait for nature to take its course, and it’s sad when it takes a long time.
Sorry, I was going to say what Biggirl said. We kill them in Seattle. (Not we the citizens, with our bare hands or anything - but the City officially). Not that I would ever do any such thing myself, but I do fantasize about it while walking through goose poop everywhere. Sorry your goose is injured. I would prepare for the possibility that Animal Control might euthanize it.
Here’s the phone number of a Wildlife Rehab near you, probably the one you called. Their website is shut down but maybe the phone number is still good.
My experience with injured birds is to secure them and wait till you can get them to a rehabilitator. I wouldn’t try to feed it until you’ve talked with someone.
I had a mallard with a broken wing end up in my backyard. I had animal control come out and take it to a vet when he assured me that they would try to save it.
