Pica P

22nd may




At lunchtime all i heard was magpies squawking and going nuts in the back garden
I went out and watched them for 20mins , flapping up and down the garden, banging the next door's garage roof and the fence inbetween and diving back and forth in the grass...

then i discovered George (one of the cats) was under the box hedging 'dome' with a fledgling magpie just in front of it and repeatedly swiping at it with his claws.

George was locked in asap, bird didn't appear damaged by him so we left him for a bit, hoping he'd fly to join mum and dad who were watching closely.. didn't happen

We then bunged a ladder up to side of next door's garage and put the bird up there... he fell off the far side, had to rescue him/her again!

He couldn't fly yet, full fledgling

The other cats were out and as soon as they turned up we didn't know what to do... ended up putting pica in the rabbit run temporarily to save him from their clutches!

mum and dad seemed happy enough for us to be around him but went crazy at the cats.

lil one needed fed as hadn't ate or drank all day never mind the heat!
Tried cereal, cat food and dug up worms from the garden but pingu wouldn't take any then, atleast not from a bowl or on the ground.

Turts did the cat food/water/ceral thick soup in a syringe and he took it eagerly... he's wanting to live!!!

he'd sit on your arm, and not a peep out of him, not stressing about being handled at all, I even lifted him and stroked him without being my usual nervous wreck around winged things!

We didn't want the lil one to suffer his death at the cats but he's also so close to being old enough to fly (so we thought at the time)......quick phonecall and 20 min drive....

A friend who fosters rescue parrots came to our aid with advice and has kindly lent me one of her spare parrot cages for him/her (thank you so much hun!!!), then he'd been fed 4 15ml syringes of food while mum watched from the house roof, then he promptly fell asleep and mum went off to probably tend to the rest of her brood.

24th May
He's getting lively!! :D

FOOOOOD!!!!!

25th may
He still can't fly yet but stretching his wings well

Mum still watches over him and shouts if we leave it too long inbetween feeds! Shocked

He's eating almost constantly between naps and getting nice and chirpy too

27th may
Little guy is growing loads and really stretching his wings now.

Still can't quite take off but he tries.. stretches up as far as his legs will let him and flaps lol

31st may

Growing and getting much chirpier ...

3rd June
he's growing fast, even in a few days you can see the difference in him, starting you fill out and growing those adult feathers well now.

i'll take new pics tomz when i've camera out.

He's also starting to take the odd live mealworm!!

OHH!! They are gruesome things!! huge, move fast and never mind rice krispes snap crakle and pop.. hearing them munch through bran is just wrong!!! disgusting things but easier than digging up worms!

He's well flapping now when he thinks he's starving! (even when he'd been fed 15mins before as much as he could eat!)

His tail is atleast 1" longer than when we saved him from george and wings filling nicely now though still a good bald patch around shoulder blade area

8th June
still very onordinated with flying but practising well and often now

So cute!!!!

13th june
He's still requiring the odd syringe feeds but now eating from a bowl and drinking from a bird bottle as well as getting regular live mealworms fed via tweezers (disgusting things)

We have spoke to resue peeps and they agree he's getting as much if not more care than they'd give him so he's fine with us, but due to the nature of the corvid species they are easily human imprinted and with him having until september/october before he could possibly look after himself alone in the wild it looks like he may not be suitable to be released.

We are putting funds away just in case for an aviary for him if that is the case. He had no fear of humans from the minute we picked him up and has got even tamer but we will still try and give it our best shot to getting him loose again..if not then he will be another addition to our family.

He's looking well and thriving which is the main thing at the minute.

Update on his family...
cat turned up again a week ago with one of his brothers who died in minutes. His mum still comes to visit Pica P and will shout at us if he's hungry but his two remaining siblings are now airborn so their time is taken up a lot with them and visits to pica are less and less. Flying brothers are a good bit bigger than him and the one that died too so no wonder he was shoved from the nest poor lil guy.

he's happy though and scoffing, growing, practicing his flying wo thats the main thing for now.

I say youre doing the right thing.

You cared for him and his interests and thats what matters.

I dont think a sanctuary could do what you have as they cant give him the attention he needs as they have others to care for too

Sounds like you have a new pet Kels!

Wow Kel.....amazing pics of how he's grown.

You've done such a great job with him and should be very proud

Bless him! Magpies have ganged up on and tried to attack my rabbits so their not a bird I really like, but this little guy seems lovely

will you keep him as a pet kel?

Pica P is doing very well ,,

He is now being weaned off the syringe and starting to feed himself !

He is getting Bogena Insect feed,cat food and of course his favourite meal worms fresh or dry he doesn't care ! (These pics were about a week+ ago)

(this was about 5 days ago)

His coordination is developing nicely as to are his vocal chords ,,
We just need to work on take off and landing now !

We're still taking the days as they come with him... we will build an aviary for him in the next few months if need be and happy to keep him if he does end up too used to humans. He could be be with us 20 odd years!

He's happy and healthy and we've been talking to enough peeps (corvid santuaries in particular) about long term with him, if he's any chance of going wild again he'll get it if not he'll be a part of the family.

See how time goes, we will give him as much chance as we can to rehabilitate ... if santuary will help then he will go there, if not then he's gonna be loved and staying with us

He looks like such a wee love! I'd secretly be hoping that he had to stay with humans. Probably selfish but look at that wee face!

He's looking very handsome Kel. I bet you've become really attached to him now

Any updates on Pica P???

He's a rowdy nightmare! lol

since stopping the syringe feeds although he eats from his bowl he's lost a bit of weight now he can fly so complimenting bowl foods with a few syringe feeds to get the weight back on... apart from that he's hyper and loves landing on your head with live meal worms :s

He's also moulting a bit so that makes him look even more scrawny lol


trying to get a close up.. he kept jumping onto the camera lol



The tea thief!!..



still seeking advice about him but he's unlikely to manage in the wild, was runt of litter and it shows.

When fledglings fly they are still fed by parents until around september, he's been in human company so long even if he still chats with his 'real flock', he's more likely to be a danger to other people if released (being friendly, land on heads, would scare anyone!)

Has he got a soft spot for hubby? Or is it just the lure of hubby's tea?

ohh pica loves him... likes to pester me!

never drops live mealworms on his head!

I have to say job well done!

He looks amazing....bet there's never a dull moment

What an amazing story! Well done on rescuing him x