Dedicated Dad and Daughter Free Sparrow Tangled in Plastic Inside a Hedge

Ecologist Ian Phillips and his daughter Bella arrived home to find a tiny sparrow tangled in plastic inside their front hedge, leaving the bird unable to fly. The pair removed the branch the bird was perched on and then cut away every last bit of plastic around the bird’s toe.

We found a sparrow in our hedge. Still alive. It’s like wrapped right around her foot really tightly. … The toe that points back. Bella, whose eyesight is slightly better than mine, is removing the embedded cord with tweezers.

They then put the sparrow in a dark, quiet area to calm down for a bit. Once the sparrow began to eat, they knew that it was time to fly away.

Obviously, this has been incredibly stressful. So, we’ll put her in a quiet, dark place, let her rest for a couple of hours, and then see how she’s doing. She’s just decided she’s so hungry. Her cuts are healing nicely. She can hear the other sparrows calling outside, and she’s desperate to join them.