Noida: Puja Sharma, a regular birder was busy spotting new feathered guests at the Okhla Bird Sanctuary on October 15, when she suddenly came across a juvenile Eurasian Hobby with a torn wing on the side of the walk way, trying to save itself from scavenging crows. The crows were attacking it taking advantage of its injury, when Puja picked it up and rushed it to Wildlife Rescue.
Over a month later, the falcon has now recovered and will be released in the Okhla Bird Sanctuary in a few days, said Nadeem Sehzad of Wildlife Rescue, who is treating the bird. Eurasian Hobby (Falco subbuteo), or just Hobby, is a small falcon. It belongs to a rather close-knit group of similar falcons often considered a subgenus Hypotriorchis.
Sharma said that the Hobby had an infection and probably also suffered trauma. “But it is recovering fast and will be released soon,” she said, adding that people mostly end up sending injured birds to the Animal Rescue centre in Waziarabad as local hospitals don’t have the expertise to treat such species. “The problem with raptors or birds of prey such as kites, eagles, falcons, hawks is that many hospitals are not equipped to take care of these and many don’t even treat them,” she said.
She added that bird injuries had shot up during the lockdown and even this morning at the Okhla Bird Sanctuary, she found a bundle of kite-manja.
There is no on the spot treatment available at any sanctuary. When an injured or diseased bird is spotted, a local hospital is informed. Not all hospitals are equipped to treat rare migratory birds , so they are sent to NGOs. Arvind Kumar, forest ranger at the Okhla Bird Sanctuary, said, “If we spot a bird which is unwell or is injured, we usually send it to a nearby veterinary hospital.”
Shezad, who is now taking care of the Hobby along with his brother Muhammad Saud, said, that they get a lot of migratory birds during this season from NCR. “Birds are usually sent to us for special care. Kite manjha is a major cause of injury during July-August when birds get cut injuries. Around 500 to 700 birds get injured daily around Independence Day. Now, even though cut injuries are less, we get some migratory birds. We are presently treating around 100 injured birds and most are black-eared Kites,” said Shezad, who has been tending to injured birds for 15 years.
Saud added that they are getting birds with septicemia mostly these days.