Seychelles Magpie Robin – Emergency Management

I received a call from Catherina on Tuesday 10th with bad news that an adult magpie-robin had been found dead on the island - worse still it was a female. Catherina packaged up the bird and sent it down on the flight so that I could take it to our partners in the SMR work, Nature Seychelles, for furtherance for post-mortem.

Then Wednesday evening more bad news – an SMR chick had been injured by Mynah birds. As it turns out this chick was the offspring of the dead female and was now only left with male to feed it etc… this he was doing. When four Mynah birds teamed up, however, in an attempt to predate the chick in the nest the male was outnumbered and whilst he fought valiantly with two Mynahs on the ground another flew to the nest and attacked the chick. Fortunately Catherina was in attendance and she was able to get to the nest and scare the Mynah away but not before the chick had suffered several injuries. Catherina took the bird into care, cleaned its injuries and applied terramycin before returning it to the territory. She placed the bird on a perch hidden in the roots of fallen tree as she felt the nest location had been compromised. The chick began calling when replaced and the male soon located and continued to tend to it (just going to show how tough and adaptable SMRs really are!).

The next day when Catherina checked on the bird, however, whilst it seemed ok she noted that its injuries had attracted flies which had laid eggs around the wounds. She cleaned them off; but this was soon repeated and so she called me that Wednesday evening to see if I could bring some suitable medicine. It was late so nothing could be done that night and I was due to travel to Denis the next morning so time would be tight.

At 08:00hrs the next morning I contacted Denis Matatiken (Director General of the Nature Conservation Division) in the Department of Environment (DoE) explained to hi the situation to him and asked if he could organise something from the Government vet. Unfortunately it wasn’t possible to get the medicines to me before the flight took off that morning but they were put on Friday morning’s flight. Two ointments and detailed instructions were received and were proving successful in deterring flies when I left the island on Saturday. Our thanks go to Denis, Wilna Accouche and Majella Athanase of the DoE and the Veterinary Department for their help in this regard.

On the Thursday, I observed and photo’d (see sidebar) Catherina cleaning the fly eggs off the chick and also assisted with the reapplication of Terramycin. Apart from its injuries which were healing the chick looked very well and also readily begged for and took the insects that Catherina offered it. I was struck by how comfortable the chick appeared in Catherina’s hands only lightly struggling when she turned it on its back to clean its stomach plumage. Catherina is dedicated to the birds and clearly has an instinctive empathy for the animals that the birds seem able to detect. Catherina then returned the bird to its perch and also rigged a plastic roof for it in case of rain that night. Whilst we were at Catherina’s place we received a visit from “Charlie” the robin that Catherina raised by hand last year who looked in excellent condition.

Catherina will monitor the chick closely over the coming days and if necessary take the bird into captivity as was the case with Charlie, but it is preferable if at all possible that the bird be raised by its remaining parent in its natal territory.

The rarity of the SMR means that the population on Denis receives individual attention from Catherina. Each bird is important as underlined by the cooperation of various agencies in this emergency management exercise. Let’s hope it bears fruit!
Do check back for updates on the progress of this bird and the Denis population in general.