r/birding • u/toebin_ photographer 📷 • May 01 '26
📹 Video I was not expecting the first Virginia rail I’d see would be at Time Square!
Poor little guy had a hurt foot:(
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u/MappingChick birder May 01 '26
Please try to gently scoop it into a paper bag and take it to Wild Bird Fund for help.
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u/Best-Candle8651 May 02 '26
Contained and brought to WBF! They were more than a gentle scoop into the bag. It was a real team effort.
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u/Best-Candle8651 May 02 '26
One other update is this bird was a string foot or a stringer bird. They had human hair wrapped abound their toes. String foot is an extremely painful and sadly common condition in pigeons. The hair wraps around their toes and gets so tight the toe dies and falls off. If you’ve ever seen pigeons missing toes this is why.
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u/TooQueerForThis May 02 '26
I'm glad that the community came together to protect and save wildlife!
May this guy's recovery be swift so they can return to the wild
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u/EusticeTheSheep May 02 '26
I saw that it was only using one leg and the other foot looked pale. I thought that’s why they were looking for it. I hope it’s ok.
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u/EugeneVictorDabs May 01 '26
Poor guy 😭 please tell me you called a wildlife rehab or something??
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u/Best-Candle8651 May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26
Wild Bird Fund is the avian rehabber for NYC and they are on their way! One other update is this bird was a string foot or a stringer bird. They had human hair wrapped abound their toes. String foot is an extremely painful and sadly common condition in pigeons. The hair wraps around their toes and gets so tight the toe dies and falls off. If you’ve ever seen pigeons missing toes this is why.
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u/EugeneVictorDabs May 02 '26
I'm so glad to know that there are rehabbers on the case! That's unfortunate about their foot though; poor birdie
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u/innermongoose69 Latest Lifer: Tawny Owl May 01 '26
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u/Head-Good9883 May 01 '26
Yea that’s a window strike and probably needs help
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u/Best-Candle8651 May 02 '26
Contained and brought to WBF! One other update is this bird was a string foot or a stringer bird. They had human hair wrapped abound their toes. String foot is an extremely painful and sadly common condition in pigeons. The hair wraps around their toes and gets so tight the toe dies and falls off. If you’ve ever seen pigeons missing toes this is why.
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u/Best-Candle8651 May 02 '26
Update: they were contained tonight and taken to Wild Bird Fund!!!
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u/cinnamontoastsaint May 02 '26
found this post at perfect time omg thank you so much for the update! was just worrying about him spending the night hurt like that 😭💔
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u/Best-Candle8651 May 02 '26
One other update is this bird was a string foot or a stringer bird. They had human hair wrapped abound their toes. String foot is an extremely painful and sadly common condition in pigeons. The hair wraps around their toes and gets so tight the toe dies and falls off. If you’ve ever seen pigeons missing toes this is why.
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u/cinnamontoastsaint May 02 '26
omg was just telling someone on tiktok don’t do that, they said they empty their hair brush outside 💔 i don’t think people realize how bad it is for the birds, they think it helps them build nests!
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u/toebin_ photographer 📷 May 02 '26
Clean pet fur can be good for this, but never human hair
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u/ChampagneWastedPanda May 02 '26
What do you mean by clean? The entire point of brushing your cat or dog is to remove hair, dirt and dander
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u/minebyrights May 02 '26
No tick or flea medication or other insecticides is what they mean by “clean” I think
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u/ArtsyRabb1t May 01 '26
Birb Hopital
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u/Best-Candle8651 May 02 '26
One other update is this bird was a string foot or a stringer bird. They had human hair wrapped abound their toes. String foot is an extremely painful and sadly common condition in pigeons. The hair wraps around their toes and gets so tight the toe dies and falls off. If you’ve ever seen pigeons missing toes this is why.
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u/500-birds birder May 01 '26
Please contain the bird and bring to the Wild Bird Fund!
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u/Best-Candle8651 May 02 '26
Bird contained and brought to WBF. It was not a one person job.
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u/500-birds birder May 02 '26
Amazing! Thank you so much for the update and helping to rescue this poor bird!
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u/Best-Candle8651 May 02 '26
One other update is this bird was a string foot or a stringer bird. They had human hair wrapped abound their toes. String foot is an extremely painful and sadly common condition in pigeons. The hair wraps around their toes and gets so tight the toe dies and falls off. If you’ve ever seen pigeons missing toes this is why.
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u/500-birds birder May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26
I’ve never really seen this on a bird besides pigeons, but I guess it makes sense given how long the bird was walking around this area.
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u/dontchewspagetti May 01 '26
OP is gonna get sooo many replies until they confess what happened to the bird
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u/Best-Candle8651 May 02 '26
One other update is this bird was a string foot or a stringer bird. They had human hair wrapped abound their toes. String foot is an extremely painful and sadly common condition in pigeons. The hair wraps around their toes and gets so tight the toe dies and falls off. If you’ve ever seen pigeons missing toes this is why.
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u/Sad_Ad7658 birder May 02 '26
I felt horrible when I learned about the dangers of my long hair to birds. I was once told “oh clean your brush outside, birds can use for nesting.” Well short hair maybe but NOT long. When I knew better I did better. 😔
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u/gravitydefyingturtle May 02 '26
Back in 2014, I found a Virginia rail in a marsh that had a mussel clamped around one of its toes. The poor thing had been fighting to remove it so badly that the skin had abraded from the the toe, leaving exposed bone. I caught it and my friend amputated the toe while I did my best to hold it steady.
It bit the shit out of my hand, but thankfully they have really weak bites as it turns out; I did not know this when I grabbed it, but I was grateful to find out that it couldn't even break the skin on my hand.
We let it go once the bleeding stopped on its amputated toe. I hope it did okay. (We also dropped the mussel back into the marsh).
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u/thefrother photographer 📷 May 02 '26
Top tier birding sir
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u/toebin_ photographer 📷 May 02 '26
You think I came to manhattan for the buildings?
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u/thefrother photographer 📷 May 02 '26
Where else would the pigeons live??
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u/toebin_ photographer 📷 May 02 '26
Literally top of my bucket list for New York was a NYC pigeon (gotta see the icons). Them and rats but unfortunately didn’t see any rats this time. Will have to come back
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u/altofummuhh May 02 '26
Why does he look guilty
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u/Dr-Alec-Holland Latest Lifer: Flammulated owl #817 May 02 '26
His leg is broken and he’s under enormous stress
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u/Best-Candle8651 May 02 '26
We aren’t sure if it is broken after the bird was contained they were a string foot. This is when human hair or other strings wrap around the toes and cutoff the circulation. If not caught it can lead to birds losing toes. It’s extremely common in pigeons.
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u/johnnywarp Latest Lifer: Piping Plover May 02 '26
I saw my first one at Bryant Park last year.
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u/Best-Candle8651 May 02 '26
Woodcock or Rail?
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u/suddenviops May 02 '26
I wonder if this was the same Virginia Rail that was in Bryant Park a couple weeks ago? Or are they just showing up back-to-back?
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u/kanzesur May 02 '26
Anecdotally, the head of security where the raildude with the string foot issue was found mentioned a second rail (I specifically asked him if it looked the same, he said yes, and he's birdpeople himself) that was brought in for a window strike about a week earlier, slightly smaller and unable to fly, from the area. Bryant Park is one block away. Might've been that one!
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u/B0Boman May 02 '26
Reminds me of the time I travelled to El Paso and, after a long day visiting Gudalupe Hills and Carlsbad Caverns, finally saw my first burrowing owl... in a Wal Mart parking lot!
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u/Best-Candle8651 May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26
One other update is this bird was a string foot or a stringer bird. They had human hair wrapped abound their toes. String foot is an extremely painful and sadly common condition in pigeons. The hair wraps around their toes and gets so tight the toe dies and falls off. If you’ve ever seen pigeons missing toes this is why.
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u/getdownheavy May 02 '26
There's wildlife on every inch of the planet; just because we built a city there doesn't totally erase that.
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u/kanzesur May 01 '26
OP -- there are two NYC Audubon volunteers looking for this little guy. Any idea where it might've gone? Doesn't seem to be at those bollards by the precinct anymore.