Whats the best way for me to help this bird?

[elanski]

There is a lost/abandoned young cockerel living in a hedge at the top of my hill. Its been there for the last 4 days. I nearly ran him over the first time I saw him but he seems to have realised the road is not a good place to be since then. I've been back three times to try and catch him and each time I get outsmarted and he ends up escaping into the hedgerow.

I've tried throwing him some food, hoping that he will come to associate me with food and be a bit more trusting but unfortunately because I had previously tried to catch him he seems to think I am danger and runs away.

Whats the best thing to do to help him?
I can't find anywhere nearby he might have come from, mostly it is just fields with a few scattered farmhouses a considerable distance away.

I'm happy to adopt him if I can just catch the bloody thing.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Go out at night with a flashlight and fishing net. Chickens don't like to move when it dark out.

 

[elanski]

Go out at night with a flashlight and fishing net. Chickens don't like to move when it dark out.

I could try. I think it would already be hunkered down in the hedge somewhere by dark though so would be hard to find and reach.

 

[WildNectarine]

There is a lost/abandoned young cockerel living in a hedge at the top of my hill. Its been there for the last 4 days. I nearly ran him over the first time I saw him but he seems to have realised the road is not a good place to be since then. I've been back three times to try and catch him and each time I get outsmarted and he ends up escaping into the hedgerow.

I've tried throwing him some food, hoping that he will come to associate me with food and be a bit more trusting but unfortunately because I had previously tried to catch him he seems to think I am danger and runs away.

Whats the best thing to do to help him?
I can't find anywhere nearby he might have come from, mostly it is just fields with a few scattered farmhouses a considerable distance away.

I'm happy to adopt him if I can just catch the bloody thing.

Ridiculous idea, I know, but if you have hens, possibly you could construct a “Jebak Puyuh” or some modified form of it, where you use a hen to lure a rooster into a cage.

 

[CombNWattles]

A long-handled net could help. Also setting up some kind of barrier you could herd him into.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I could try. I think it would already be hunkered down in the hedge somewhere by dark though so would be hard to find and reach.

But that's the point. It will be in one place. I have accidentally caught chickens in a live trap, so that may be an option.