This Common Buzzard had been witnessed spending a lot of time on the ground over the past few weeks by grounds keepers at a Framlingham college. They called us for some advice but this behaviour is not overly unusual for buzzards, who will spend time “grubbing” for worms and other invertebrates. However, Buddy as he was named by the staff at the college, recently stopped being able to get off the ground, and with the temperature dropping, they became more concerned about him so called us again.
To make sure it was safe to intervene, we asked the staff to send us a video of Buddy to rule out any suspicious Avian Influenza symptoms. As he had been around for a long while it was assumed the flightless behaviour was due to weakness rather than disease. The video above is what was sent to us, and we were happy to take Buddy into our care, as it shows an alert Buzzard who is unable to fly.
Upon arrival, Buddy was triaged by our team and they confirmed that he was very weak but had no symptoms of Avian Influenza. He was taken into our Raptor Hospital where we found he was also suffering from a minor infestation of worms (found on a fecal smear done by Jess at the centre). This would also contribute to weight loss, so Buddy is now being treated for this parasite burden.
Buddy is enjoying some TLC in our Raptor Hospital
After a day in our indoor aviary, Buddy was moved to one of our larger outdoor aviaries, where he is already showing that he can move around. We will continue to monitor him to make sure there are no underlying injuries and make sure that he gets plenty of food to put on weight before hopefully being released soon.
Buddy enjoyed his meal of Rabbit.
Update: After a couple of days in the outdoor aviary, Jess decided to try Buddy with some wild-type rabbit. This is bought in frozen from our food suppliers Kiezebrink for the purpose of rehabilitating birds back into the wild. The law in the UK does not allow the feeding of live vertebrates, so wherever possible we feed wild type natural prey such as mice, rabbits, partridge etc, which can be defrosted and fed whole, as they would in the wild.
When Jess entered the aviary, Buddy was instantly interested in what she had, and before she had time to leave after placing the rabbit on a log, Buddy had jumped down and was feeding. This is a great sign that he knows what sort of food he should be eating, and we hope that his appetite remains good so that he can be released soon.