Minus a Myna

So here I am trying to have an afternoon nap on my new (2nd hand) queen sized bed after spending an hour grooming Cleo and Milly (not so much grooming, more so cutting weeds out of their fur).  I had just heavily dozed off when a strange sound caused me to open my eyes.

I had an uninvited guest. It decided to take a tour of my place as it saw no souls in sight thinking it had a way out from every room.  Then when it reached the front bedroom and saw a human and 2 dogs on the bed, it decided to make a quick escape and flew down the hallway and straight out the window.

There in lies the problem.

Like all other dwellings, I do have windows and where they can be opened is a secure mesh (maybe not so secure.. this IS Dept. of Housing property).  The bird, an Indian Myna (not unlike the bird pictured above) learned the hard way that it’s not physically possible to fly through mesh… now had he been an albatross, pelican or maybe even an eagle, he probably would have had enough power to just hit the mesh at enough speed that it would break away from its pathetic little holdings and he’d be free.  (Just realised I’m saying ‘he’.  No clue what sex it was, didn’t think to ask, but  how badly it wanted to escape and not stay and fight, I’m guessing a male).  But being an Indian (or Common) Myna, he was only around 20 centimetres (about 9 inches), and the weight of … maybe a couple of chicken eggs.

As he saw me approaching, he became more frantic and kept bashing at the windows and mesh in the loungeroom hoping something would give.  I was torn.  I wanted to help him, but at the same time, didn’t want to touch him.  Mynas have sharp little beaks (refer to image) and from my own personal experience, sharp beaks hurt when they’re aimed full force at your hand.

So while I’m thinking:  “God, help me out here, show me how to help him”

He’s probably thinking: “Oh shit, human is now 2 wing flaps away, I’m screwed!!”

He continued to fly (vie my thick curtain) from one window to the other so it came to me to use the broom and maybe a bag.  I picked up the broom and put it in the middle of the curtain to use that as a deterrent to stop him going from window to window meaning he was stuck by one window.  Then I picked up a material shopping back, putting my hand in that (in the same way one puts a hand in a plastic bag so as to pick up untouchable dog poop) and slowly got closer to the bird.

This was tricky; left hand in bag, right hand holding broom trying to round up Myna with both.

Eventually I got close enough that I was able to cover him with bag, and only then, I was able to let go of the broom, put other hand in bag and use my now free left hand to work out which part of the bird I had (didn’t want to break his neck).

Confident that I had a safe grip on him, I carefully took him through the kitchen and laundry to the back door.

At which time, the bird seemed to sense freedom, wrestled out of my grip and flew to freedom, neither one of us got hurt.

“What!  No thank you kiss?!?”

Maybe no kiss, but he did appear on the fence outside my window looking in at me for a couple minutes, wiping his beak on the fence before flying off .  Maybe a thank you of sorts?