The specialists of the Centre for Wild, Exotic and Domestic Animals Rescue “Feldman Ecopark Good Home” are often addressed by the caring citizens of Kharkiv oblast and other regions, who found swans and other water birds, which were not able to fly to the south for some reason and stayed to spend winter here.
“During the last two months, nearly forty calls from six Ukrainian regions were made to the hot line concerning the birds, which did not fly away. In nine out of ten cases the matter was in swans,” the specialist of Good Home Tetiana Dovzhenko tells. “This problem arises every winter, and to solve it, we use the practices of our more experienced colleagues from Kyiv, as well as the Hungarian centre for wild bird rehabilitation.”
First of all, it is necessary to understand that the frosts down to -2C° are not dangerous for the swans. These birds have a warm swan’s down and an adipose matter, and the main danger threatening them is hunger, the rescue service notes. “Migratory birds do not fly away in autumn in two cases. The first one is when the bird is weak, that often happens with yearlings and females, which produced numerous offspring in summer. The second one is when the bird was traumatized by a predator or (more frequently) by a hunter. That is why, the first thing to do is to try to scare the bird away in order to find out whether the bird is able to fly,” the specialists recommend. “If the bird flies up, there is no need to feed it, as it is able to find food without assistance. In case of the complete freezing of a water body, it will fly to the unfrozen spot. The swan needs an ice-hole at least five metres in diameter for the predators not to be able to reach it on ice.”
Ornithologists recommend feeding a bird during cold periods only when it is a gray yearling that did not change its plumage. In this case, one swan needs 1 kg of the mixed fodder once in three days. This amount of food will not accustom a bird to artificial feeding, but will also prevent freezing to death. The swans also eat grain, oats, corn, grated vegetables and soaked hay. “The city dwellers should know that the swans and ducks must not be fed with bread, as this food may cause enteritis,” Tetiana Dovzhenko notes. “It is the regular feeding of wild birds during warm periods that is often the reason for them not to fly away to the south in winter. People do more harm than good by this, as they train the birds not to find food themselves and give false hope for an easy wintering.”
If the swan is not able to fly up and sits on the completely frozen water body, this means that it is very weak or injured. This bird should be caught and brought to the nearest rehabilitation and wild animal adoption centre, zoo or Ecopark.
“During the last two months, ten mute swans were brought to Feldman Ecopark, including the one from the neighboring oblast. We are mostly helped by the caring citizens. Local residents take part in bird rescue as they are close to the situation. They catch a swan in trouble and give it to the specialists. It is very pleasant that people don’t ignore the animals or the birds in trouble, and are ready to act in order to save the life,” they say in Feldman Ecopark Good Home.
