Texas family saves orphaned baby bird by wrapping it in tortilla: ‘That’s all I had’

A Texas family got wrapped up in an unforeseen animal rescue mission and saved a baby bird by cocooning it in a tortilla, earning them praise for their quick, compassionate actions.

In a viral 13 July Facebook post, the Wild West Wildlife rehabilitation center in Amarillo, Texas, recounted how its employees first learned of the saga upon receiving a call from the Adlongs, the family at the center of the story.

The Adlongs said they had found what appeared to be an orphaned barn owl. A facility staffer asked whether the Adlongs had placed the bird in a box, which would keep it safe and prevent it from causing additional injury to itself.

However, the Adlong family didn’t have a box. So they had to get creative.

“I wrapped my little bird in the warm tortilla and swaddled him up,” one member of the family, Katie Adlong, said in an interview with the Guardian on Monday. “That’s all I had.”

A Wild West Wildlife rehabber learned of the Adlongs’ ingenuity when she arrived at the family’s address to check the bird out. The facility said the bird was actually a Mississippi Kite, which is a hawk-like bird, and it was secured snugly in the warm tortilla.

The 36-year-old Katie Adlong said she spotted the Mississippi Kite alone on the ground while her family barbecued and swam at their house. She used the barbecue grill to warm up the tortilla that she ultimately wrapped around the bird because she was concerned the baby bird was getting cold.

“Undoubtedly, it was an inventive method to keep the baby warm,” the animal rehab center said in its Facebook post. “And surprisingly, it was effective.”

The Wild West Wildlife staffer brought the hatchling back to the animal rehab facility. There, the bird was given the name Taquito – Spanish for little taco. And its recovery was going well.

After finding out the baby bird was okay, Adlong said: “It’s heartwarming and exciting. All we wanted was to save this baby and make sure it had a long, healthy life.”

The Adlongs’ rescue of Taquito went viral after the Wild West Wildlife center wrote about it on Facebook.

The center created and started selling T-shirts that feature the words “Tortillas save lives” along an image of the bird wrapped up in one of the Mesoamerican flatbreads.

“Never. And I mean never... underestimate the power of a tortilla,” one Facebook user commented.

Invoking burritos, which are also made tortillas, another user joked: “A birdito, if you will.”

Mississippi Kites are found all over the US and live in habitats such as fields, meadows, grasslands, forests, woodlands and lakes, according to the national Audubon society. They predominantly eat large insects and small rodents.