About three months ago we had a new visitor to the back door. She must have heard that ours was the house where you could get wild bird seed and the best grain bread morsels every day, all day! We called her BB (Broken Beak) as we were shocked to see that she only had half a beak! She is a Magpie and they need their long, sharp beak to dig for worms on a daily basis. Well, BB couldn't because she'd get a beak clogged with dirt.
When she came to us she was bedraggled, her feathers were dull and her left foot was also missing a claw. Her foot was so swollen that she'd tuck it up and stand on one leg - it must have been agony to stand on it. The shape of her head is square, not round, so we think that perhaps she narrowly missed getting run over by a car.
After weeks of a little ball of minced steak daily and bread, she has put on weight, her feathers are nice and smooth and shiny and she now hops around on two feet! Now she's found the bird bath and had her first bath, that we know of, yesterday. She sits on a windowsill all day, singing her beautiful song and gives us so much pleasure. She has a mate, whom we call 'Youngun', as the feathers are still grey on his chest.
We also enjoy our Sulphur-crested Cockatoos, Galahs, Crested Pigeons, Rosellas, Blue Wrens and Sparrows. They all come in for a feed and get on famously together.
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