The Chimney Swift That Visited Our Hospital...

Every once in a while I am reminded just how cool my job really is, one of those times was this week when an injured bird was brought to the hospital. The picture doesn't do her justice, but this was a beautiful little bird.I held her in my hand and it was like there was nothing there. Try closing your hand and leaving just enough space for 2 imaginary cotton balls. That is exactly the way it felt to hold her. Then imagine that those cotton balls were looking at you, responding to you. That there was a heart, lungs, wings, brain, an intricate living thing there that was so light, so whisper soft that you could barely feel it. That was an amazing moment she shared with me.

At first I thought it was a Barn Swallow, but while we were taking radiographs to check for fractures we appreciated that this little bird had some very distinctive features. The first was her bill. It is short and stout, the beak of a bug eater. Her wings were shaped like a swallow. But, the really amazing thing was her tail. It had firm, straight barbs.



At that point we knew this was no swallow, it was my partner that suggested she was Chimney Swift. We had some hatchlings at the clinic in the past, but never an adult. The Chimney Swift is a fascinating bird. These birds catch all their food and collect their nesting material while flying, they don't perch. They even bathe and drink water by swooping over ponds and rivers and dipping into the water. They get their name because they roost communally in air shafts and chimneys and this is where they make their nests. They use the tail barbs to roost. They live as far north as Nova Scotia and throughout the eastern United States. They winter in the Amazon Valley of Peru!

Later that day she was flying, we got wax worms for her to eat. She went off for a little rehabilitation time and hopefully she will be roosting some time soon in a near by chimney.