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Susan Hickman, a lady, has touched the hearts of many people with her
YouTube narrative about her beloved bird, Klinger. Hickman revealed in June
2015 that she had chosen to take a closer look at something she had seen on
the ground on June 16, 2014. One of the Starling's eggs was shattered. When
she lifted it up, she discovered a little bird inside.
When the baby chick finally surfaced, he was helpless, small, and without
feathers. He had his eyes closed, too.
She said, "I could not, would not just leave it there to die. I could not
return it to a nest because I did not know from where it had come." To
attempt, I had to."
Since starlings are gregarious birds, the chick would not have survived if
it had been left alone. Since certain species are also frequently found near
human habitations, it would go against the bird's natural instincts to rear
it indoors. Hickman chose to nurture the chick because he connected with
it.
She named the bird Klinger when she brought him home. She also gave him an
incubator so he could stay toasty warm. Klinger was a warrior, and the next
day Hickman discovered he was still alive. Raising him wasn't a simple
process, though. To make sure Klinger grew strong and healthy, she fed him
with a medication dropper every 20 to 30 minutes from morning to night for
the first two weeks.
Some experts, though, said she was wasting her time.
Expert avian rehabilitators alerted me about the likelihood of his death,
Hickman disclosed.
Hickman's efforts paid off, and as the days went by, Klinger's strength
increased.
At that point, Klinger began to grow larger and develop hair and feathers.
Then he opened his eyes one day. The bird soon learned how to bathe from
Hickman, and because he enjoyed the water, he began taking many daily baths.
Klinger quickly grew into a large bird and learnt how to feed himself as
well.
In the meanwhile, he learned how to play with toys from his adoptive
mother. He displayed his ball-handling prowess in the video Hickman posted
of her pet. But the most unexpected thing about Hickman was when Klinger
started speaking.
Wikipedia states that starlings "have diverse and complex vocalizations and
have been known to embed sounds from their surroundings, such as human
speech patterns and car alarms, into their own calls."
Despite Klinger's growing importance among the family that had come to
adore him, Hickman continued to believe that Klinger should carry out his
destiny. She chose to release him into the wild, but she soon found that
this was not feasible. Klinger couldn't endure in the wild since he had been
tamed.
"Parent birds teach their young a lot of abilities that are essential for
survival, skills that I was not able to learn. Had Klinger been left in the
wild, he probably would not have lived, Hickman revealed.
She also disclosed that he had developed an attachment to her.
The avian enthusiast said, "Imprinting is a unique learning process which
occurs early in life and allows an animal to develop a sense of species
identification."
Hickman so made the decision to just let him live with her. Luckily,
Starlings were legal to own as pets, so she wouldn't be breaking any
rules.
Many of Hickman's admirers were moved by her narrative, and some of them
went on to tell tales of their own bird rescues in the wake of that
incident.
Tags:
animals