Australia is home to more than 800 species of birds, from loud, in-your-face cockatoos to tiny, hard-to-spot wrens.
Interacting with birds has been shown to be good for our mental health, with even the sounds of birdsong shown to help reduce depression.
So it's not surprising that most of us will want to help a bird if we think it's injured, sick or abandoned.
But while you may have the best intentions, wildlife vets and rescuers say people taking a wild bird into their home all too often end up doing much more harm than good.
Tering Davies is a vet and director of Thylacine lutruwita, a not-for-profit wildlife hospital near Hobart, in southern Tasmania.
She says she has had people bring in birds that they have been trying to look after themselves and often the animal has been made much sicker because most people do not how to care for them properly.
"You can actually do more damage," Dr Davies says.
"[For example] if they end up being fed the wrong foods and things like that, they end up dying a very slow death."
Deborah Martin, volunteer avian coordinator with wildlife rescue organisation WIRES in Sydney, says extensive training is required for volunteers to be able to care for birds, because each species has specific needs.
"It's also illegal to take birds from the wild and raise them unless you've got a license," Ms Martin says.
"It really worries me that people think they can care for things by themselves.
"At the moment [in care] I've got a kookaburra that will only eat mice. I've got a couple of cockatoos and the corella that eat seeds … I've got a noisy miner and lorikeets, so they eat nectar and lots of native flowers and I've got four little red-browed finch chicks that are tiny little birds that have to be fed every hour."
Does the bird actually need help?
Ms Martin says wildlife rescuers get the most calls for birds between September and March when chicks and fledglings are out and about.
Both Dr Davies and Ms Martin say the best course of action if you see a bird you think might need help is to call a wildlife rescue organisation to get advice on what to do, as people often confuse normal bird behaviour for the bird being injured or vice versa.
Dr Davies says if you notice a young bird on its own, wait and see whether its parents return before scooping it up, as often the parents will be nearby.
Ms Martin says whenever possible, wildlife rescuers will try to get chicks and fledglings back to the parent.
"Even if we've handled them and we've had them in for a week, while they're recovering from an injury, we can put them back out there, and the parents will accept it," she says.
"[The parent birds] do a much better job of raising them than we ever can."
It can be dangerous to approach an injured wild animal because it is likely to be scared and may try to attack you in defence.
A sick bird could also have a zoonotic disease, which is an infection that can pass between birds and humans, meaning you could make yourself and your family sick if you take the animal into your home.
But if you do need to handle a bird to get it to safety, Dr Davies advises keeping contact to a minimum for the good of the bird.
"They can get stress-related illnesses so badly … and in wildlife it can cause death," she says.
Dr Davies says a cardboard box is often a good option for keeping a rescued bird.
She also recommends keeping the box dark, try not to have too much noise around it and minimise smells.
Resist the urge to try to feed it and don't even give it water, as a bird can breathe water into its lungs if it is given incorrectly.
Dr Davies says once a person has picked up a bird, they should not delay in getting it medical help.
"If they break a bone … we need to start and get that bone back to where it needs to be within 24 hours," she says.
Is it a wren, duck or eagle?
Identifying birds can be tricky, especially when they are juveniles.
"People make funny mix-ups," Ms Martin says.
"We got very excited because somebody said they found two raptor chicks, like eagles or hawks or falcons or something, and when we rescued them, it turned out to be two fairy wren chicks, tiny little birds."
Dr Davies says when an injured animal is brought in, the vet's first priority will be to assess the pain and suffering and ease the animal's pain. Then they have thorough checks to identify the species.
If the bird is species native to the state, the aim will be to rehabilitate and release the bird back into the wild.
If it's an invasive species, it is not legal to release it back into the wild once it has healed.
"The [government] guidelines advise that we need to euthanase invasive [species]," Dr Davies says.
Vets will not charge for an injured wild animal to be euthanased, if that is the best action.
Dr Davies says wildlife vets are often equipped to be able to take care of injured native animals free of charge and also have specialist expertise that domestic vets may not have.
Wildlife rescue groups such as WIRES also don't charge members of the public who call for help.
Ms Martin says planting native scrubs and trees is the best way to help native birds in your area.
She also says it it is best to avoid feeding wild birds so you do not accidentally give them a bad diet, and if you have a birdbath, clean it regularly to prevent the spread of diseases and parasites.
