When wildlife pays for human error

The screech who was held illegally from July through late September will be paying for human arrogance, ignorance, stupidity or error—whatever you prefer to call it—for quite a while. Last week I was infuriated about it; this week, I’m more saddened for him than anything else.

His feathers—his tail feathers in particular, but all his feathers in general—are in godawful shape. Providing a shallow water pan for him to bathe in once he was in the mini-pen only reinforced their awful condition.

Additionally, his talons are so overgrown he can’t grip the perch properly. I’m trying to let the wood of the perches and roost shelf wear down the talons naturally to avoid further stressing the poor fellow, but I may end up having to trim them by hand. And his flight muscles are so underdeveloped that if he lands on the floor of the flight pen, he can’t flit up to the low perch. That, at least, should resolve itself as he now has the room to fully utilize his wings.

So what’s in his future? Potentially a long period of captivity while we wait for him to molt the damaged and most likely weak feathers and grow in a new set of undamaged and stronger feathers. Normally screeches molt in July/August but their molt can extend into October/November, so maybe having him outside in natural weather conditions in the mini-pen will stimulate this traumatized little fellow to begin this process...unless he’s already done so while being held illegally. Then we’re looking at a year before he molts again...Y’all keep your fingers crossed he begins to molt soon so he can regain his long-denied freedom ASAP.

Y’all are well aware of how much I adore screeches because of their fierce little attitudes. This poor fellow currently has no fierceness, only fear, and it breaks my heart.

There will be no update next Sunday, Oct. 16. I have other obligations that day.