Heidi Runid has a very private room in her apartment

NRK seriesN “Heart of the Wild Animals”

Heidi Runid from Heart of the Wild Animals: – I love helping pigeons

NRK’s ​​longtime chess commentator has turned parts of the house into a hospital for wounded and sick pigeons. Heidi Ronedd thanks her boyfriend Odd Harald Eidsmo Barder – literally – for giving her room to grow her passion.

Welcome to us, Heidi Rooney (39 years old) smiles when Og Na comes to visit her. The sound of wings cooing and flapping attests that “we” means more than she and her cohabiting partner Odd Harald Edsmo Barder.

In the three-room apartment in central Oslo, the guest room has been converted into a rehabilitation room for three sick city bathrooms – and in the bathroom lives an injured Mallard.

– We have a three-room apartment, but it will practically be like a two-room apartment. Odd Harald thinks I should only have two bathrooms at a time, but I think two or three are roughly the same – so three bathrooms became the limit. But there is a constant flow of birds that need help. It never stops, says the 39-year-old known as host and commentator on chess broadcasts on NRK and TV 2.

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space for all: – I think we should rather think that we share the city, nature, and the whole world with birds and other animals. We should see instead how we can adapt to each other, and then we can put up with a little pigeon droppings on the streets, I think, says Heidi, who here takes care of the sick pigeons in the house.
picture: Sven Premi

NRK Series “Heart of the Wild Animals”

In her spare time, Heidi is involved in the organization “Bird Advocates”, which rescues sick and wounded animals – and her care of the birds can be seen this spring in the NRK series “Wild Animal Heart”.

– Whenever I receive an injured or sick pigeon, I am very concerned about it. I can get up a few times a night, get up and check how things are going – especially if it’s critical. At some point, it either dies – or it gets better. Feeling that things are going well is one of the most beautiful feelings I know. Then I feel the complete warmth of joy inside, you smile.

Bird Advocates: As a volunteer with The Bird Lawyers, Heidi also took in an injured Mallard Logan. He earned a place in the bathroom at the cohabiting couple’s home in Oslo.
picture: Sven Premi

Oslo has 3,500 pigeons, and some refer to them as “flying rats” because they live in flocks – and often self-dispose – near humans and our buildings. In many places, spikes and nets are created to keep pigeons out.

Before, I was – like many – who bothered me about pigeons because they were picking food for the little birds on the board. I guess it was because I didn’t know the bathroom at the time. Then you only see a large flock of gray feathers without approaching the individual. But when I live with pigeons, I see how different their personality is. I love helping out the bathroom!

Heidi says pigeons are so smart that they can recognize their own reflection. They remember people and live in monogamous relationships for life.

– I had a pigeon that stood and looked out the window a lot, unusually. The day I was going to release the pigeon, I put it on the balcony. Then another dove sat on the railing, and the dove that was inside flew straight to him. Then they moved as if they were alive. It seemed to me that the partner was the one who was sitting and waiting for his own bathroom, and that he somehow saw the pigeons inside the window. Because they flew together over rooftops, she says.

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Living with Odd Harald

Sometimes Heidi’s special relationship is put to the test by her love of needy pigeons.

It becomes a dilemma between really wanting to help and bothering my companion. Sometimes I go over the limit for the number of pigeons he thinks it’s okay to live in, and then Odd Harald says no. Sometimes we properly argue about the bathroom, but we always find solutions, she assures.

Heidi and Harald Odd: – There is a frequent debate between us about where the boundaries with pigeons go. Then there will be a little rope tug. Odd Harald means two bathrooms max and I think we can have three. But really, I want to be able to get up to five, says Heidi.
picture: Sven Premi

As for Odd Harald, who works as a lawyer, it reached its climax when he sat in the home office with three flight-trained pigeons that flew over his head.

– It’s good to help pigeons, but it is tiring to have pigeon dung where you live – you have to wash, draw and fix. I appreciate it more when they are released, laughs.

Over the course of one year, Heidi and Odd Harald had about 30 bathrooms in the apartment. Had it been up to Heidi, she would have wished for an entire flock to live constantly, but she is happy that her partner is allowing her to use her house as a pigeon-hospital at all.

– It’s very generous of him. Others are annoyed that the commuter leaves crumbs on the kitchen counter. It fades a bit compared to Odd Harald who lives with a group of pigeons. It’s a little worse. I think few of them would say no to that. Every now and then I send a message where I write: “Another pigeon has arrived. I promise to make dinner and take a shower.” So I have a few tricks so you don’t get too embarrassed, says Heidi and smiles wisely.