Kathrin Stucki Helps A Hummingbird
by Michael
Kathrin Stucki runs and owns A1 Savannahs with her husband Martin. That takes a lot of time and effort. She is concerned with other matters too and one of the activities outside the cattery is animal welfare. Incidentally Martin and Kathrin have about 15 different species of animal on there farm. Kathrin is known locally as someone who rescues wild animals. People bring sick or hurt animals to her and she does all she can to bring them back to full health before releasing them. This hummingbird is a case in point. We were driving back from Oklahoma City about 120 miles away when a person who Kathrin knew called and asked if Kathrin could help a hummingbird that looked hurt. She was not sure what was wrong.
Kathrin diverted to an agreed pick up point and we collected the bird. As the photo above by Kathrin shows, this is tiny bird weighing about 3 grams. Anyway it seemed that the bird was very passive but there were no bones broken or obvious signs of illness as far as Kathrin could tell. Kathrin fed the bird with a sugar solution by first gently prising open its beak and putting a drop inside the beak so that the bird could taste it. The bird immediately began to drank the sugar solution and improve before flying around the room. Kathrin was pleased to be able to release the bird soon afterwards:
This species of hummingbird is Archilochus colubris or the ruby-throated hummingbird. It is the the most widely distributed of the world's 339 species of hummingbirds. It is 7-9 cm long with an 8-11 cm wingspan, and weighs about 3 grams. Adults are metallic green above and greyish white below, with near-black wings. Their bill is long, straight and very slender.
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