no tail yet but e yellow butt is a dead giveaway. probably fell out of its nest & flapped some distance away, only to be freaked out by all e noise & swords, cudgels, broadswords etc swinging around at ~10pm. GY was left holding it in his hands until e cat volunteered to bring it home - NOT for supper. SERIOUS ;)
10-Q to those who hunted for boxes, provided electrical tape & plastic bag & helped to ta pao & escort e bird so that e cat could bring it home maciam fastfood takeaway *grin*
& big fat 10-Q to those who responded so quickly to e cat's emails for advice on how to upsize this frugivorous + insectivorous fella up from happy meal to extra-value meal proportions....to YC for helping to ask experts in BES group, fuchsia halcyon for asking a friend who worked in JBP for 8 years, e monumental one, & also RMBR's LK =)
with e power of Google, found someone else's account (scroll down to 8 March entry) of taking care of another such chick, & more info on YVBs here & here.
old birdcages had been given away, so YVB was housed in a large plastic fish tank (another form of 'catfood container') on e living room floor. broke off two little branches from our plants & 'jammed' them in between e walls of e tank so that it had something to perch on, & covered e sides with newspapers. at night we would cover e lid after it tucked its head beneath its wing & settle down to sleep inside e tank.
by e next morning it had pretty much settled down & started to show off its whale-sized appetite, grabbing bits of mashed up banana/grape/pear off e blunt end of a satay stick & demanding to be fed every 10-15 minutes. when it wanted a break from feeding it would tilt its head sideways & tap its beak on e branch or lid of e fishtank (whichever it was perching on) - a way of cleaning bits of food off its beak?
[010706] tail feathers starting to grow:
started to flap around & explore e living room, but with just e beginnings of a proper set of tail feathers it was still crash-landing/sliding on its yellow butt - highly amusing to watch *evil grin*
at this stage, faecal matter was still discharged within easy-to-pick-up transparent membranous sacs, which makes life easier for parent birds when cleaning out nests in e wild, & for us when cleaning e fish tank.
grumpy face:
note missing claw on medial toe (pinkish stump) of left foot, & out-turned claw of lateral toe on right foot - already in this state when found.
by now had become imprinted on e cat's mum, who would bring it to her room & let it perch on e side of her bed while she took her nap. it would stay put & shut up until she woke up, & then start clamouring for food again. also started to chirrup in response to e sounds from other birds visiting e fig tree & other plants outside.
part 2 & part 3
[ filed under: nature1 + 9_lives_2006 ]
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