A heron shot with an airgun died just minutes after arriving at a specialist bird sanctuary.
The long-necked bird was found barely alive, being pecked at by three crows.
The bird, a female, was found on Sunday by a couple at a nature reserve in the Dewsbury area.
The stricken creature, which was underweight and lethargic, was taken to Calder Vets in Savile Road, Dewsbury, who then contacted specialists at Yorkshire Swan Rescue Hospital at Barlow, near Selby.
Volunteers from the sanctuary collected the bird but with minutes of its arrival it had died.
Dan Sidley, who runs the sanctuary, examined the bird and found two puncture wounds and an air rifle pellet in its wing.
“It was a beautiful heron but it was starvingly thin,” said Dan.
“We took it out of the box to give it some fluids and food but the bird passed away in my arms.
“When we examined it more closely we found the puncture wounds in the wing and the pellet, which would explain why it could not fly.
“It had been shot, couldn’t fly to find food and slowly starved to death. It was absolutely heartbreaking and incredibly cruel.”
Dan said herons, which feed on fish and other aquatic prey, were usually “vicious”. This bird was a female who had a ‘brood patch’ which showed she had been incubating eggs recently.
Dan said he was still waiting to find out exactly where the heron was found so he could report what happened to the police.
Last year the Examiner reported how another wild bird – dubbed Wilton the goose – found a new home at the sanctuary.
The Canada goose was found in Wilton Park, Batley, with the bottom half of his beak ripped off, believed by thugs.
A Facebook fundraising campaign was launched and now, just over a year later, Wilton is loving his new life.
Dan said: “Wilton has adapted so well to our nature reserve and he is in tip-top condition. It’s almost as if he has a bottom beak.
“He couldn’t be released back into the wild so he will spend the rest of his days here.”
