Chaffinch saved from brink of death by phone app

Bird lover Leon Timms has discovered a new use for a smartphone. Saving a dazed chaffinch. Tree surgeon Mr Timms was watching the FA Cup final on TV at home in Oxford on Saturday, when the chaffinch crashed into the house and collapsed to the ground. Mr Timms, 37, of Purcell Road, Marston, brought the stunned bird indoors and had the flash of inspiration to use a bird call application on his iPhone to try to revive it. After playing the sound of the chaffinch on his phone, the bird began to show signs of life. When he placed it on a branch of a tree in his garden and played the bird call again, the chaffinch flew off.



Mr Timms said: “I was watching the match with my wife Emma and shortly after the kick-off we noticed something falling past the window. I went to have a look and saw this chaffinch lying dazed on the ground – it must have flown into the solar panels on the roof or one of the upstairs windows. The bird looked like it was about to die any second – it was panting and struggling to breathe. I brought the chaffinch inside and starting stroking him on my lap and then I came up with the idea of playing it the sound of another chaffinch on my mobile phone app. I popped the app on and almost immediately the bird’s eyes opened and he seemed to become more alert.

“It had looked almost lifeless when I brought it into the house and looked on his last legs but after I played the app it started to show signs of recovery. It definitely responded to the sound of another chaffinch – my wife was impressed that I had had the idea of using my mobile.” Mr Timms added that he bought the app last year because lots of his customers were twitchers. He added: “When I’m in the treetops I hear the birds singing right next to me and I got the app to show customers the different bird calls. I’m an animal lover and we always try to protect birds’ nests when trees are being cut down.”



Mr Timms said he had missed the first half of the football match because he was looking after the bird. He added: “At half-time, I took the chaffinch outside and played the app again and he flew off. It’s great that a smartphone helped in this situation – this is something I can tweet about, although I’m quite new to Twitter and I only have 13 followers.” Royal Society for the Protection of Birds spokesman Wendy Johnson said: “We haven’t heard of this happening before. It’s a very creative use of an app. Our advice if people find birds that have flown into windows is to put them in a quiet, sheltered place to give them a chance to recover.”