On my way to the shops this morning, I noticed some Wood Ducks chasing one of their mates(?). But there was something different about the bird, something I couldn’t put my finger on. So, I stopped the car and turned around. As you know, the camera is never far away, I got out of the car to have a closer look. You can clearly see in the photo, the bird is completely wrongly put together. The wings are far too small, when chased by the others it had trouble flying, instead it tried to outrun them. I think, the bird should survive, if it has made it so far.
What do you think. Has anybody else seen disabled birds?
It does look as if something is amiss, doesn't it M-L? Poor little fella. Still, it looks to be doing o.k. otherwise as you've pointed out. I don't know if it qualifies, but I posted a couple of pics of one of my favourite little Wrens earlier this week, "Quasi" - he's not so much disabled, but has an odd hump on the back of his neck/head. He's been around for almost a year though and seems to be doing fine too - by the sounds he's luckier than this duck given he's always foraging with a group of about 7 and I haven't seen any of his family chase or peck at him etc.
West Coast Tasmania