Скачать или смотреть The Duck Trap

Filmed: 15 June 2017

A plumed whistling duck turned up with a badly-broken bottom beak. As desperately as it tried to pick seed off the ground, it couldn't close its beak.

After a quick call to the local wildlife people, they suggested trying to catch it with a drop cage. I had a large, cheapo cage I was able to remove one side from and stuck it out in the yard to see if the ducks would be scared off by it. Within 5 minutes, the lorikeets were practically swinging off it.

I caught the duck the next day with a single try. It was so hungry it was pushing the other ducks out the way to get at the food. The hard part was removing the two extra ducks and a pair of crested pigeons that were caught with it also.

Sadly, after delivering the duck to a local vet, x-rays determined its bottom jaw was smashed and it had to be put down. Better than starving to death I guess.

Sadly, few wild birds I take to the vets survive - magpies with hooks in them, lorikeets that can't fly, with tumour in their shoulder, or PBFD...