Today I was at a friends apartment. As I was walking up to the building this bird flew by me, really close. I thought it was strange that it got so close, but then it landed right next to me and started chirping/squawking with its mouth wide open. My friend comes out and there we were, being amazed by this little wild bird that had no fear of humans. It walked around squawking at us, and then it flew up and landed on my friends head. He reaches up and it jumps onto his arm. We guessed that someone had found a baby bird and had been taking care of it, and it either flew away or had been dumped. No idea what kind of bird it was. It was all gray except for a black triangle in front of its eyes. It was about the size of an adult cardinal, but it wasn't an adult, it had a few tufts of white down sticking out of its feathers here and there. It could fly though. Anyway, we get some bread and toss some bits on the ground near the bird. It ignored them. Then it flies up and lands on my arm, so I hold a piece of bread in front of it and it grabs the bread and gobbles it down. I fed it about half the slice that way, by hand. I put it down in the grass and it walked around pecking at ants or something for a few seconds, then flies back up to my friends head. It was really something to see. Finally, not knowing what to do with this bird, we set it back down in the grass, and went inside hoping it would fly off and go about it's business. A little while later we were wondering if it was still there, so we look out the window and what do we see? Some guy in the parking lot chasing it around with a broom handle or something. He killed it. I couldn't believe it. I'm guessing it flew over to him like it had done earlier to me, but killing it for no reason never even crossed my mind. No idea why this guy felt he just had to kill the poor thing. I really don't understand my fellow human beings sometimes. This has ruined my whole day. I feel horrible. I wish I had taken the thing in and figured out what to do with it later. RIP little bird.
Sorry cherrychicken. It was such a strange experience, and such a neat little bird, I felt it deserved a little written obituary of sorts. I'd never seen a wild bird act like that.
How horrible! What a jerk that guy that killed it for no reason is. Killing things for no reason makes me so mad. I'm so sorry that happened to you.
I'm sorry for your trauma and very perturbed with the guy for killing the bird. There was no call for that. This does illustrate though why people that aren't trained in wild bird rescue should not attempt to save wild birds. They imprint and become dependent on humans. Then they run into some jerk.
I know. It's weird though. I hunt and fish occasionally throughout the year and never feel weird like this about killing game animals. It kinda makes you question yourself and your own actions when a little wild bird yanks on your heart strings like that. Seeing that guy knock that bird out of the air, after I had just fed it by hand, felt like someone had stuck a knife in my gut. It was one of those 're-evaluate yourself' moments.
It's weird though. I hunt and fish occasionally throughout the year and never feel weird like this about killing game animals. I think the difference is killing something respectfully for food and killing something cruelly just for the sake of killing. What a jerk! I really hate being a human sometimes, too. I think I would have stormed out and asked him what the heck he thought he was doing. I'm not at all my usual, easy-going self when someone is hurtful or violent, ESPECIALLY when someone defenseless (like animals, kids, or older folks) is involved. I'm sorry you had to see that.
I am sorry you had to have that happen! I would have had to take a baseball bat to him, just to show him how it feels. I am sorry, sometimes I truly believe humans are the lowest form of life there is