Bird-lovers in West Kochi on Thursday rescued a black-crowned night-heron, which was caught in twines left over from kite-flying. The bird was found hanging by its wings from a long plastic twine over the terrace of a house at Kocherry Junction, near Pandikkudy.
Mukesh Jain, a voluntary bird rescuer, said that he got a call around 7 a.m. while at another bird rescue operation but was able to release the bird from a coconut palm frond in about half-an-hour. However, the bird was found to have sustained a serious injury to one of it wings.
The recovery of the bird, under observation now, is likely to be slow considering the seriousness of the injury, said Mr. Jain.
He said that the migratory bird, which he could not initially identify, was among the more than 70 he and his friends had saved after the kite-flying season set in during the Onam festivities. About 70 per cent of these birds are crows, he said. Thursday’s was the first night-heron (nycticorax nycticorax) he had rescued.
A woodpecker, which was saved earlier this week from Mattancherry, was among the rarer ones that were caught in tangles of plastic and nylon twines used by kite-flyers, he said. Parrots, pigeons and eagles also get caught frequently in these twines, he said.
