Well, that didn't take long before the next x-rays were received; this time for a kestrel which had suffered a collision on the road.

If you use the chart I put up earlier this month, you can see that there is a break in the thinner of the two central bones; this is the radius and is usually a fairly simple repair. However, on this particular bird there is also a huge open fracture higher up on the humerous. Alas these are nearly always irreparable and so with other bodily damage the bird had sustained, we had to make the sad decision it was kindest to put the bird to sleep. With kestrels especially, they need to be able to hover in order to hunt, and thus need a perfect set of wings, whereas the majority of other birds such as a pigeon, corvid, gull or songbird can manage very well with a slightly dropped wing and just adapt their method of flight to suit.

Nigel