What Kind of Bird is This?

20150805_191109 by concealer404, on Flickr

A dead one?

No not quite. It was breathing, but not doing much else. Then about 2 hours later it disappeared. Not sure if it went away under its own power or if a hawk ate it.

The cats had apparently played with it for so long yesterday that they were no longer interested in it and were walking by it laying on the carpet.

How they caught a bird INSIDE my house continues to boggle my mind.

Not sure but dead seems close. Perhaps an Unfortunate Bird. Definitely not worth two in a bush though.

when in doubt, thrush, it's never actually a trush, but it's such a cool raptor sounding name for such a skiddish, innocent songbird.

Night hawk or nightingale?

The tasty kind.

Wing shape looks like a Swallow, but not colorful enough?

European or African Shallow?

Looks a lot like this picture of a Chimney Swift.

Best guess is a Tree Swallow.

If the cat used his claws, a soon to be dead Tree Swallow, as the birds usually succumb to infection even if they survive the wounds.

Tree Swallow - note juvenile's color/marking

Chimney Swift seems to be what i have here. Interesting. Suppose i should check my chimney.

That is definitely a chimney swift, as I have had them in my house before. We ended up waiting for them to all grow up and leave the nest, then we put a cap thingy on the chimney to prevent them from returning the next year.

We have a cap thingy, but much like many things on this piece of E36 M3 berkeleying house that we rent, it's fallen into disrepair and has huge holes in it i could stick my head through.

I would not recommend using the fireplace until the nest remains have been removed, it could start a fire in the chimney.

We ended up with one of these birds in a wall, and that was when we discovered a huge fireplace had been covered up with a wall but not properly sealed up beforehand.

We don't use the fireplace, so no worries. It's in the basement, which... we don't use.

I don't know, I'd climb up to the chimney, drop some rosemary and sage down there, crank on a rock salt grinder a dozen or so times, fill the fireplace with white ash, apple wood and a few chips of cherry and keep a nice slow fire going until tomorrow morning. It should be tender enough that the feathers will slide right off and the meat will fall off the wing.

In reply to captdownshift:

Aaaand dinner has now been called in.

Chimney swifts can use chimneys, but its rare, especially if you have yours covered. Any crook or hollow in a tree can be home. The frequented chimneys in old England because every building had coal fireplaces that all vented into the same big chimney. Big chimney = chimney swifts. Small 5" American chimney, not really big enough for swifts. They fly down and pull a U-turn so they need a full wingspan and enough space to make the turn.

That is most definitely a Chimney Swift. Lovely sleek birds. Hope he was OK.

Looks like he has one helluva leak. You should patch it.

bludroptop wrote: Tree Swallow - note juvenile's color/marking

The immature does look a lot like his photo, but tree swallows (even from young) have stark almost bleached white throats and bellies.

E's pinin'. Lovely plumage, the Norwegian Blue.

Yep, Chimney Swift. They pass through here a couple times a year on their way north to breed or south to spend the winter. They travel in massive flocks. Like plague of locusts massive. Last year I heard a noise outside that sounded like rain. I walked outside (with one of our parrots) and found myself in a literal cloud of chimney swifts who were coming down to drink from our pond. They had formed a flight pattern that was roughly rectangular and probably half a mile on the long sides. The pond was toward the end of one of the long sides, and the whole pattern dipped down, took their drink on the wing, then got back in the pattern for another lap. When they were done, the pattern broke and the flock continued on its way. Of course the eclectic parrot that was with me was having none of it and was screaming at the top of his lungs at the invaders. They seemed mostly unfazed.

Someone needs to be insane enough to have a parrot (and be a good parrot owner who interacts with them and give them some space and run) and also have a border collie. The interactions and semi-neurotic behaviors of each would be quite humorous. I'd watch webisodes of the pair.

Looks like it vomits pure water.