Zena's South Canterbury Bird Rescue - Located in Timaru

05/10/2026

Still very much having a bit of a hard time!
Last week i recieved what we believe to be a 12ish year old pigeon. I tried my best to get him through but sadly I lost him over night on Saturday in the end :( this morning I recieved a mallard duck that unfortunately had not only I broken wing but also a broken leg so the decision was quickly made to put him to sleep as it was clear he has already suffered for awhile prior to being found.
Also this morning I picked up a female pigeon that appears to be suffering from alphachloralose poisoning. She has been treated for such and once i think shes in the clear she will go on to have a good bath as shes covered in some sort of brown substance that smells like roading...
And also this morning I took one of my young magpies to the vet due to him appearing to have some sort of seizures 😞 he/she came in with a obvious head injury so it lines up. So the wee one has been put on a anti seizure medication to see if that helps however his/her future is very much up in the air currently.
Even with not being able to take the baby garden birds or ducklings its very quickly turning into a very trying season already 😞 im trying to remember all i can do is my best and that im doing as much as I can so we will get through this!!! I appreciate all the people that are finding these birds and getting in contact!!! At the end of the day, even if they have to be put to sleep atleast they havnt been left out there to suffer!!! So thank you so much!!! Also if you are able to donate even a small amount to the bird rescue vet account (QR code in the photos) would be absolutely amazing!!! All of this costs money. From consults, to medication, to xrays, to euthanasia. Every part costs money and without your help its simply impossible. So every cent is much appreciated ♡

02/10/2026

Is anyone missing a pigeon?
No rings
If you think its yours please flick me a photo or identifying features
Thanks ☺️

01/10/2026

***warning triggering photos***
Well...
This week has gone from
Bad to
Werse to
ABSOLUTELY DEVASTATING!!!
Tuesday I lost a female adult magpie after she was clipped by a car and just went down hill...
Yesterday I got in another female magpie that I believe had botulism and lost her over night...
Then today out of the blue I lost my young magpie that iv had for nearly 3 weeks that has been fighting with muscle weakness... whats fustrating is he was improving so so much!!! He was back up walking around and even wing shaking when he was hungry but the he never started to open his mouth for food willingly again so im not sure if that pointed to something that I had missed or what :( either way I feel so angry and deflated!!! Harsh reality of rescue but man does it suck when you hit a run of deaths 😭😭😭
Im so sorry I failed you beautiful souls 💔
Fly high ♡♡♡

28/09/2026

4 more pigeons back into the wild where they belong ♡♡♡
1 being from the amazing Nikki that puts her heart and soul into rearing these beautiful birds (love working as team for these birds!)
A huge thank you to my aunty for taking them down to Nina! And a massive thank you to Nina for releasing them for me ♡
2 part video so half is in the comments 🤣
Release videos dont always go to plan haha

27/09/2026

Desperately after some help
Sadly this wee dot has muscular weakness lining up with the starts of Metabolic bone disease so he is on a strict insectivore mix diet along with added calcium to give him the best chance at beating this!
Unfortunately this makes me highly concerned for any other young magpies that come into care this season so we need your help to get a good stock up of both insectapro and calivet so we dont run out!!!
If you can spare even a dollar would truly mean so much!!! Donations can go straight into the account below so I can get this stuff through the cheapest supplier iv found ♡ any help would be truly soo soo appreciated ♡♡♡ thank you in advance ♡
ZENA GUTHRIE
06-0889-0284967-69
Ref: magpies

27/09/2026

Reminder!!!
I am unable to take BABY/YOUNG garden birds - sparrows, thrushs, finchs, starlings, waxeyes, blackbirds
And also I can not take ducklings
This is not a new thing as its due to how much I work (think this will be about 3 or 4 seasons) however there are still people that seem to miss the message 😞
Attached post says who to contact for most types of baby/young birds during breeding season ♡
Thank you for your understanding 😊

Baby Bird Season
Remember not every baby bird needs your help!
Please take note of the chart below before you intervene ♡
If the baby/young bird does infact need help please remember who to contact:
Myself: Magpies, Pigeons
General garden birds (blackbirds, starlings, sparrows, finchs, thrushs): Beaks, Paws and Claws otago (herbert) or Melissa Moss (Ashburton)
Mallard ducklings and/or Paradise ducklings: Beaks Paws & Claws animal rescue Otago (Herbert)
Paradise Ducklings: Becca Black (Timaru)
Native babies (eg kereru, tui, bellbird, pukeko, red billed gull, black billed gull etc): please ring 0800dochot first and if you dont recieve help please flick me a text

26/09/2026

A massive team effort!!!
Thank you to everyone involved ♡

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19LxnqnWte/

25/09/2026

I want to say a HUGE thank you to my work mates!!!
We won a work achievement which came with a bonus for us all and a group of my work mates decided to donate their winnings to the bird rescue vet account ♡
Im truly so greatful and feel so blessed to work with people that appreciate what I do!!!
So a massive thank you to: Virginia Park, Christina Alexander, Emma Anso, Lesley, Callum and Aimee Fisher!!! I appreciate you guys so so much ♡

19/09/2026

Sooo update on the 5 domestic pigeons that I got in. Thankfully they are doing really well ♡ got all the testing i need to get done on them with the help some amazing people!!!
However I have just found out that they did come from the house I thought they had come from. And that they admitted to the spca that they simply just 'let them out'... This is NOT OK! So i decided I was going to put in a report about this incident as I am simply sick of people not wanting their pigeons anymore so they just release them into the wild... this is infact ILLEGAL! HOWEVER i recieved a reply back from the 105 line basically saying they wernt going to do anything about it (screen shot of email shoven below)!!! I am soo soo frustrated and angry!!! These are living, breathing creatures... They deserve so much better than this!!! These 5 were lucky! They were caught and brought into my care. However so many in the same position arnt this lucky! They either get released and die from starvation or by getting killed by the likes of a cat. Or the ones that do somehow manage to work out life on the wild side end up breeding with our wild rock pigeons and thats why so many of our feral pigeons have white in them (this is not natiral). I know the system is failing animals in general However chances are not many people in new zealand try to fight for pigeons and clearly when they do they just get thrown to the side simply because these birds are simply looked as 'as not werth s**t', 'rats with wings, 'pests' blah blah blah. They are amazing beautiful birds that deserve to be here as much if not more than us humans!!!