Sydney Fish Markets

A call from Australian Seabird Rescue team member Silke, North Sydney came to me regarding a pelican at the Sydney Fish Markets with about 8cm of his top beak missing. On seeing the photo sent to me it was obvious this bird was going to be in a lot of trouble in a short space of time.  Being an hour and a half from

Wollongong it was difficult to co-ordinate.

Co ordinator Kirsten and team member Nikki attended on the Monday but were unsuccessful with the bird not wanting to leave the safety of the harbour.

So Kirsten and I went up on the following Thursday and it broke my heart to see this poor bird about 8 months old trying to retrieve scraps thrown to him from the café public having to put his head on the side under the water to scoop up the scraps. There was no way I was going home without him.

So off we went down on the oyster laden rocks to entice him with our yummy flathead. He was hungry poor thing so he was in my arms within 5 minutes.

Unfortunately with nothing that could be done for him he was taken to the vets and euthanized.

He was in a poor condition being unable to preen, no feathers under his wing making him not waterproof. He would have died a slow horrible death from hypothermia and possible starvation from incorrect diet.

Easily avoided of course if people would only stop feeding these birds and making them people friendly perhaps they may return to the wild and this sort of cruel injury would not occur. It was confirmed by the veterinarian that the injury was caused by a KNIFE.

A very sad outcome for this very handsome very young bird

Betty