Public warned not to ‘rescue’ baby birds

Conservation group BirdLife Cyprus urged the public on Tuesday to refrain from ‘rescuing’ baby birds this spring, potentially doing more harm than good.

BirdLife said with the onset of spring, it would not be long before nests filled with fluffy chicks, making it possible for some to look abandoned and helpless.

“It is hard to resist the urge to rescue, but often people intervene when in fact most chicks should be left alone,” the organisation said.

BirdLife urged people to think whether interfering would be the best thing to do and while small actions could make a big difference in conservation, “sometimes our eagerness to step in can be detrimental – especially when our judgment is clouded by the ‘cute factor’”.

“We may have the best of intentions, but taking a chick with you can be a bad thing; it is technically illegal, it is messing with nature, and can even make things worse for the chick.”

The organisation said people should first determine whether the chick is visibly injured and not just clumsy or unable to walk because it is young.

If the chick is bleeding, or has other visible trauma, the best thing to do is call the Game and Fauna Service, which has a Rehabilitation Centre for wild birds on 22 867786 and/or BirdLife Cyprus which is always available to give advice on 22 455072

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.