Betrisher
Well-known member
- Jun 3, 2013
- 4,253
- 177
- Parrots
- Dominic: Galah(RIP: 1981-2018); The Lovies: Four Blue Masked Lovebirds; Barney and Madge (The Beaks): Alexandrines; Miss Rosetta Stone: Little Corella
Lisascannell posted today that an escaped cockatiel is in her yard and she has no idea how to catch it. I thought it might be timely to have a discussion on what to do when faced with an escaped bird (either yours or someone else's) and how to catch it. If we all share our ideas, at least we'll have a resource for when accidents happen and a bird needs to be caught.
So, with that in mind, here are my thoughts on catching birds and I hope everyone will add their own to build this into something really helpful in moments of crisis.
Things to remember:
Birds usually fly upward when startled
They fly to the light, not toward darkened areas
They will come to the call of another bird, especially one of their own species
They are nervous of sudden movements and sharp sounds
They will try to find a high, safe place to roost in at night
They generally will not fly after dark
All these behavioural facts about birds can inform us when we want to catch an escapee. If the bird has roosted in a reachable place, for example, then it makes sense to wait until after dark to go and nab it. Before you do anything, remember the abovementioned points to help you rather than hindering you.
Methods of catching
Throw a towel or a sheet over the bird when it's on the ground.
I, myself, personally have never known this method to work, but others have so I list it here.
Prop a cardboard box on a stick with a long string tied to it. Put food under the box (close to the part that touches the ground) and wait for birdie to come and eat it. Pull string. Box falls. Slip newspaper or something stiff under box and take birdie inside to get hold of him.
This has worked for me heaps of times, especially with pigeons and budgies.
Put out a spare cage with food and water in a high, visible spot. Wait for birdie to come and eat, then shut the cage door.
This is one time when those horrendous tiny cockatoo cages are very useful. If you place the cage on its side so that the door can be propped open in the upward position and fall downward, you've got the best chance of success. Tie a bit of string to the door so that you can pull on it from a distance to shut the cage. Of course, you need to ensure the subject isn't small enough to get out between the cage bars. I have such a cage covered in chicken wire for exactly this purpose.
Most of my birds live in a kind of porch area outside my back door. We have had lots of birds come to visit them, including a sick SC2 and our poor little lovebird, Nimbus, who was stolen from us back in November. Since this area is kind of darkish, I've found that wild birds tend to fly toward a window in the back corner. They can see light through it and seek to escape that way (not realising there's a pane of glass there). Twice, now, I've simply opened that window and allowed the bird to fly into the house. From there, it was easy to catch the birds with my butterfly net.
A butterfly net is a most useful tool to have when you're in the business of birds! Mine is homemade from a fishing net and some terylene curtain material I got cheap from somewhere. Yes, it was originally to catch insects for my entomology course, but it's been used as a dipnet and an animal-catcher ever since. I've caught over a dozen birds in that net and it's worth its weight in gold!
You can buy small round aviary nets, but if you look in the fishing section, you'll see the kind I used. They're kind of a ruptured square shape, wider at the top than at the bottom. You need to remove the fishnet (although it could work in a pinch for larger birds) and replace it with finer netting. Tulle works at a pinch, but will snag eventually. Just use whatever you can get your hands on. It's so handy to have a good net with a long handle if you're trying to catch a loose bird!
The other thing I've found useful is having another bird to call for the loose one. My neighbours and I caught a quarrion (cockatiel) this way a few years ago. Next-door bloke had a caged quarrion, so he put that out in his back porch area. When the loose bird came down to the caged one, Bill just swiped 'im up in my net. Yay! Lots of cheering went on, because the loose bird belonged to an elderly lady down the street. She was terribly afraid of losing her companion! Also, our Nimbus came down to our lovebird cage because he could hear the birds calling. He was starving! I put food out for him and tried a few swipes with the net, but he was too quick for me. Eventually, I opened the window mentioned above and he flew in and we caught him. Then some b@stard stole him away!
If you're very creative, it's not hard to rig up a spring trap. I once (honestly and truly) caught a horse with a rat trap. All you do is set up a ring of wire covered in net. Attach that somehow to your rat trap, which you've fastened to the ground, and run a string a good distance away. Put food down near the wire ring and when birdie comes, trip the trap. Hopefully, the wire ring and net will cover birdie and you've got 'im. (That's how I caught the horse, only I didn't use net. I put my ring of wire around the rim of a large garbage can and put molasses in the bottom. Horsey came to eat, I pulled upon my little string, the trap was tripped, the loop went round horsey's neck and I had 'im! This was my finest hour and no-one was there to see it. Only me and my dog.)
Enough rambling from me, though. Will others please put up ways they've used to catch birds and suggest other tools we might use?
So, with that in mind, here are my thoughts on catching birds and I hope everyone will add their own to build this into something really helpful in moments of crisis.
Things to remember:
Birds usually fly upward when startled
They fly to the light, not toward darkened areas
They will come to the call of another bird, especially one of their own species
They are nervous of sudden movements and sharp sounds
They will try to find a high, safe place to roost in at night
They generally will not fly after dark
All these behavioural facts about birds can inform us when we want to catch an escapee. If the bird has roosted in a reachable place, for example, then it makes sense to wait until after dark to go and nab it. Before you do anything, remember the abovementioned points to help you rather than hindering you.
Methods of catching
Throw a towel or a sheet over the bird when it's on the ground.
I, myself, personally have never known this method to work, but others have so I list it here.
Prop a cardboard box on a stick with a long string tied to it. Put food under the box (close to the part that touches the ground) and wait for birdie to come and eat it. Pull string. Box falls. Slip newspaper or something stiff under box and take birdie inside to get hold of him.
This has worked for me heaps of times, especially with pigeons and budgies.
Put out a spare cage with food and water in a high, visible spot. Wait for birdie to come and eat, then shut the cage door.
This is one time when those horrendous tiny cockatoo cages are very useful. If you place the cage on its side so that the door can be propped open in the upward position and fall downward, you've got the best chance of success. Tie a bit of string to the door so that you can pull on it from a distance to shut the cage. Of course, you need to ensure the subject isn't small enough to get out between the cage bars. I have such a cage covered in chicken wire for exactly this purpose.
Most of my birds live in a kind of porch area outside my back door. We have had lots of birds come to visit them, including a sick SC2 and our poor little lovebird, Nimbus, who was stolen from us back in November. Since this area is kind of darkish, I've found that wild birds tend to fly toward a window in the back corner. They can see light through it and seek to escape that way (not realising there's a pane of glass there). Twice, now, I've simply opened that window and allowed the bird to fly into the house. From there, it was easy to catch the birds with my butterfly net.
A butterfly net is a most useful tool to have when you're in the business of birds! Mine is homemade from a fishing net and some terylene curtain material I got cheap from somewhere. Yes, it was originally to catch insects for my entomology course, but it's been used as a dipnet and an animal-catcher ever since. I've caught over a dozen birds in that net and it's worth its weight in gold!
You can buy small round aviary nets, but if you look in the fishing section, you'll see the kind I used. They're kind of a ruptured square shape, wider at the top than at the bottom. You need to remove the fishnet (although it could work in a pinch for larger birds) and replace it with finer netting. Tulle works at a pinch, but will snag eventually. Just use whatever you can get your hands on. It's so handy to have a good net with a long handle if you're trying to catch a loose bird!
The other thing I've found useful is having another bird to call for the loose one. My neighbours and I caught a quarrion (cockatiel) this way a few years ago. Next-door bloke had a caged quarrion, so he put that out in his back porch area. When the loose bird came down to the caged one, Bill just swiped 'im up in my net. Yay! Lots of cheering went on, because the loose bird belonged to an elderly lady down the street. She was terribly afraid of losing her companion! Also, our Nimbus came down to our lovebird cage because he could hear the birds calling. He was starving! I put food out for him and tried a few swipes with the net, but he was too quick for me. Eventually, I opened the window mentioned above and he flew in and we caught him. Then some b@stard stole him away!
If you're very creative, it's not hard to rig up a spring trap. I once (honestly and truly) caught a horse with a rat trap. All you do is set up a ring of wire covered in net. Attach that somehow to your rat trap, which you've fastened to the ground, and run a string a good distance away. Put food down near the wire ring and when birdie comes, trip the trap. Hopefully, the wire ring and net will cover birdie and you've got 'im. (That's how I caught the horse, only I didn't use net. I put my ring of wire around the rim of a large garbage can and put molasses in the bottom. Horsey came to eat, I pulled upon my little string, the trap was tripped, the loop went round horsey's neck and I had 'im! This was my finest hour and no-one was there to see it. Only me and my dog.)
Enough rambling from me, though. Will others please put up ways they've used to catch birds and suggest other tools we might use?
