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When a male bullfinch smashed into Marcin Jarzębski’s apartment window, he took it in but realized it needed expert treatment. So, the next morning, he brought it to Warsaw’s new emergency room for wild birds.
He prepared a shoebox for the tiny, plump bird with a black head, gray back, and reddish chest feathers. Then he took it as one of the first patients to the new drop-off center for sick and injured birds at the entrance of the Warsaw Zoo.
“The bird stayed with us overnight, but unfortunately, it probably has a broken wing, so we brought it to the bird hospital,” Jarzębski said.
The 24/7 emergency room in the Polish capital is actually a system of automated metal containers—something like a parcel room—where the containers can keep the birds warm in winter. The boxes send an immediate signal to the bird hospital just a few meters away, where veterinarians bring the birds for diagnosis and treatment.
Jarzębski filled out a questionnaire and carefully placed the shoebox and the paper form into one of the containers, assured that the bullfinch would now have its best chance of surviving.
The box system, designed based on ideas of the workers at the bird hospital, locks the birds in to keep them safe until a doctor can collect them. The drop-off center, which opened in February, is boosting the efficiency of a bird hospital that has operated at the Warsaw Zoo since 1998 and now treats about 9,000 patients annually.
It’s the brainchild of the zoo director, ornithologist Andrzej Kruszewicz, who said that people have a responsibility to care for creatures whose habitat they have altered, such as that of the bullfinch.
“This bird is a child of the forest who, during migration, didn’t understand the window,” Kruszewicz said.
“Humans often cause problems: car accidents, crashes into windows, electrocutions, tangled strings on storks’ legs,” he said. “All this is humans’ fault, and they should feel responsible to give these birds a second chance.”
Typical patients at the Warsaw Zoo include common songbirds like tits, sparrows, thrushes, and starlings, as well as pigeons.
This article was provided by The Associated Press.