Nov 21
Tough to be a little bird
This belongs to the category not-so-nice. If you’re squeamish, don’t open the picture! When I was photographing the birds, I noticed this one great tit which had a head injury. Looks almost like someone did open brain surgery on it, flesh wounds and a swollen forehead. It was pecking away at the peanuts, seemingly not bothered by the injury at all, but one wonders… can it survive tomorrow? It will be a cold night, and later it will be snowing and raining. The winter is tough on little birds even when they’re fit.
Definitely not nice. That is probably caused by avipox-virus, it causes those tumor like things to birds and is quite commonly seen among winter birds. -Easiest ones to pick up, quite obvious though..
A virus? I was sure it had been attacked by a predator… I had no idea a virus could cause such visible damage. Ouch.
The smallest of all beings are the most fearsome.