Baby Killdeer I rescued from a storm drain

Shah_of_Iran@sh.itjust.works to aww@lemmy.world – 305 points –

One of the parents was running around the drain making a bunch of noise, went to investigate and found the baby trapped inside. I fished it out with a hair net wrapped around a coat hanger that I taped to a broom handle.

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I just saw one too. Not a particularly bright bird. It was sitting there yelling at me and I said out loud "what's your deal, yo?"

She laid eggs 2 feet from railroad tracks and was telling me to bugger off. They really blend in well! Image

Nesting on the ground is certainly an instinct. You go, you individual. You absolute being.

This picture was taken in front of a suburban elementary school. I feel terrible for her because I think she chose her nesting spot when covid lockdown was in effect and now she is stuck with tons of children running by twice a day. Literally 2 meters away from her. Will give her credit where credit is due that she sticks it out and doesn't leave her nest.

(Don't worry, she's roped off and they make regular announcements to use as reminders for everyone to look out for her.)

Looks like some of the kids built her a nice protective ring of rocks around the nest?

It was a pre-existing "rock garden" they made in 2019.

Yeah, they made a nest in the gravel left behind from a torn down building near where I live. I found the nest because as I was walking ~40 feet away one of them started going nuts. I never would've noticed the nest had they not called my attention to it :/

It was fun watching the baby birds emerge though, I thought the rain had drowned them for a while.

They're really stupid but have adapted really well to their stupidity. If you get too close to the nest, a parent will often mime having a broken wing to lead predators away from the eggs.

It’s so adorable! Wow the baby has the same markings as the adult! I think that’s uncommon for birds, right?

Why do they call this bird a “killdeer”? 😳

The bird makes a call that sounds like the word "dee", over and over. Just as someone who runs is a runner, a bird that's dees, is a dee-r, so it's not deer in the sense of the animal the way you may think. At least that's what I've been told. The "kill" part is a bit strange, but I'm assuming it comes from the fact that this bird will feign a broken wing to distract a predator away from their nest. All in all, I'm really not sure on the origin of the name, but that's what I've learned in my last 3 years of actively being a part of the birding community.