Susan Hickman, a lady, has touched the hearts of many people with her YouTube narrative about her beloved bird, Klinger. Hickman revealed in June 2015 that she had chosen to take a closer look at something she had seen on the ground on June 16, 2014. One of the Starling’s eggs was shattered. When she lifted it up, she discovered a little bird inside.
When the baby chick finally surfaced, he was helpless, small, and without feathers. He had his eyes closed, too.
She said, “I could not, would not just leave it there to die. I could not return it to a nest because I did not know where it had come.” To attempt, I had to.”
Since starlings are gregarious birds, the chick would not have survived if it had been left alone. Since certain species are also frequently found near human habitations, it would go against the bird’s natural instincts to rear it indoors. Hickman chose to nurture the chick because he connected with it.
She named the bird Klinger when she brought him home. She also gave him an incubator so he could stay toasty warm. Klinger was a warrior, and Hickman discovered he was still alive the next day. Raising him wasn’t a simple process, though. To ensure Klinger grew strong and healthy, she fed him with a medication dropper every 20 to 30 minutes from morning to night for the first two weeks.
Some experts, though, said she was wasting her time.
Hickman disclosed that expert avian rehabilitators alerted me about the likelihood of his death.
Hickman’s efforts paid off, and Klinger’s strength increased as the days went by.
At that point, Klinger grew larger and developed hair and feathers. Then he opened his eyes one day. The bird soon learned how to bathe from Hickman, and because he enjoyed the water, he began taking many daily baths. Klinger quickly grew into a large bird and learnt how to feed himself as well.
In the meanwhile, he learned how to play with toys from his adoptive mother. He displayed his ball-handling prowess in the video Hickman posted of her pet. But the most unexpected thing about Hickman was when Klinger started speaking.
Wikipedia states that starlings “have diverse and complex vocalizations and have been known to embed sounds from their surroundings, such as human speech patterns and car alarms, into their own calls.”
Despite Klinger’s growing importance among the family that had come to adore him, Hickman believed that Klinger should carry out his destiny. She chose to release him into the wild, but she soon found this not feasible. Klinger couldn’t endure in the wild since he had been tamed.
“Parent birds teach their young a lot of abilities that are essential for survival, skills that I could not learn. Hickman revealed that had Klinger been left in the wild, he probably would not have lived.
She also disclosed that he had developed an attachment to her.
The avian enthusiast said, “Imprinting is a unique learning process which occurs early in life and allows an animal to develop a sense of species identification.”
Hickman so decided to just let him live with her. Luckily, Starlings were legal to own as pets, so she wouldn’t be breaking any rules.
Many of Hickman’s admirers were moved by her narrative, and some of them went on to tell tales of their own bird rescues in the wake of that incident.
