Why a ‘donut’ can help injured birds

During April and May, the night skies over the United States fill with hundreds of thousands if not millions of birds migrating north in pursuit of food and adequate nesting habitats. These migrations are notoriously dangerous journeys–bad weather, predators, disorienting human-made lights that can lead to collisions with buildings, all while expending enormous amounts of energy. As such, you’re more likely than usual to find an injured bird during migration periods. 

If you do come across one, the nonprofit wildlife rehabilitation organization Help Wild Birds has an important piece of advice: put them in a donut. 

“Always place injured birds that can’t stand up by themselves in a ‘doughnut’ and place them in a box,” reads a Facebook post from Help Wild Birds Facebook. “Do not give them any food or water.”

Eiger doesn’t mean an actual donut, but a donut-shaped towel or wrap to help the bird sit up. The advice seems to have been inspired by an individual who found an injured northern mockingbird laying on its back, and called the non-profit for instructions on how to move forward. At the time of the call, the individual had already put the mockingbird in a box and dripped some water into its beak, which is “not a good thing to do,” according to Help Wild Birds. 

“Do not try to give any food or water—unless you are instructed otherwise by your rehabber. You can very easily aspirate an injured bird and that alone can kill a bird,” the post continues. Like in humans, aspiration occurs when water or food get into the lungs. In birds, it can lead to pneumonia. 

[ Related: What to do if you find a baby bird out of its nest. ]

According to Help Wild Birds, if you find an injured bird, you should put it in a box. If it can’t stand up on its own, you should also put it on something that will keep it upright (on second thought, perhaps a real donut could work for a small bird—but probably not and don’t try that at home!). 

The reason you’ll want to keep the bird upright is because birds have air sacs on the sides of their bodies. Similarly to lungs, these air sacs inflate and deflate to breathe, and presumably can’t do so if they’re constricted. If the bird is an orphaned hatchling with skin showing, it also needs to be kept warm. You can do this by putting a heating pad under the box, or even putting a microwaved rice-filled sock near the baby bird, per the non-profit.

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