I have a Cardinal in my pool...

[Chick15]

Yeah, I know it sounds weird...
So over the summer we foud that our pool has a leak in it, so in late fall we drained the pool, but then we didn't know what to do with it. So we have a big empty pool in our backyard with nocover on it. I just found out that we have a bird in our pool, and the Cardinal has been there since Sunday (i dont know why I wasn't told sooner...) He has been hopping around the pool alot, but I haven't seen him make any attempts to fly away. I can't see his wing well, as he is moving around too much, so I don't know if that is the problem. We put birdseed in the pool, but now what do we do? Can anyone help?

 

[conny63malies]

You got any wildlife rehabber near you? They can help. Maybe somebody can sneak in the pool after dark and get the bird out and put it in a cat carrier. I bet the cardinal has a broken wing. You dont want to wait to long or the wing starts to heal and might set at an wrong angle which means he could poss . never fly again.(some rehabbers keep the bad flyers at their home in a aviary to live out their life)

 

[redhen]

Cant you climb in the pool and get it out? Bring him inside, feed him and check him over

 

[fuzziebutt]

Do you have a net with the pool? I would use a skimmer net, or a long handled fishing net and get him out. If he can't fly and it rains alot, it could drown.

 

[RHRanch]

I hope you took him out of the pool, songbirds can and will drown in deep water. He may have misjudged the depth and wanted to bathe.

 

[sourland]

Catch him, take him out of the pool, inspect for injuries - release if he is OK otherwise to a wildlife rehabber.

 

[redhen]

Any update on the birdie??

 

[Chick15]

Okay, so we caught him (I named him Little Red) and brought him to this place called the raptor trust. The people there did their best, but his wing was broken in three places, one of those looking like an old injury, and had already started to set. He wasn't going to be able to fly again, and the only birds they are able to keep are Raptors, so he was humanely eauthinized. At first when i heard the news I was very sad, but I am sure that would be better than being eaten or dying a slow and apinful death in my pool. They said that injuries like that were usually seen when a bird is run over by a car. We were told that it was likely that Little Red had been picked up by a bird of prey (he was probably fairly easy pickings due to his old injury) and was then dropped in the pool.

RIP Little Red!!

 

[Bunnylady]

How sad -but you did what you could.