In what has been described as a "miraculous" rescue, a Brisbane vet has surgically implanted feathers into a badly injured wild bird, saving it from certain death.

A tawny frogmouth was recently found tangled in a barbed wire fence at Jimboomba, south-west of Brisbane.

The distressed bird was cut free by wildlife carer Annette Bird and taken to the Brisbane Bird and Exotics Veterinary hospital at suburban Greenslopes on the city's south side.

"When I saw him I thought game over," Ms Bird said.

"Clearly he was stuck and I realised he was in big trouble, so I had to cut his main flight feathers to get him free, or it was going to end badly."

The Tawny frogmouth bird was found tangled in a barbed wire fence at Jimboomba. ( Facebook: Brisbane Bird and Exotics Veterinary Services )

The tawny frogmouth, called Koura, was sedated and cut from the fence but before it could be taken to the vet, Ms Bird received a call from the RSPCA to rescue another tawny frogmouth nearby.

"Unfortunately the other bird had a horribly smashed wing from a car strike and wasn't going to live, but I gathered it up anyway and rushed both birds to the vet," she said.

"As it turns out it was the best decision I've ever made."

X-ray showed no fractures on the Tawny frogmouth bird found tangled in barbed wire.

Koura's luck continued when vet Hamish Baron was on duty at the Brisbane Bird and Exotics Veterinary Clinic.

He examined Koura and found that he would not be able to fly and survive in the wild in his current condition and drastic measures were needed to save him.

The vet used glue and bicarb to make an extra strong bond at the joined area of bird's wing. ( Facebook: Brisbane Bird and Exotics Veterinary Services )

"Fortuitously, I've just got back from three-and-a-half months training doing falconry medicine in Dubai and we did feather implants every day over there because the birds were breaking their wing feathers during training," Dr Baron said.

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"This bird was the perfect candidate, because it came in with another bird that had passed away — a tawny frogmouth of the same size and sex — and so we were able to transplant the feathers without any dramas trying to find a donor bird.

"The stars really did align for this bird."

Dr Baron said a delicate procedure called "imping", or feather transplant, was used to save Koura.

"We trimmed the feather shafts really short and placed a little bamboo skewer inside the shaft and attached that also to the feather that we're replacing it with," he said.

"Then we used some glue and bicarb soda just to provide a good seal and then just use an emery board to smooth all the feathers down.

"It was a very, very lucky bird and it was a little bit of a miracle that everything came together, that we had the skill and the time that day to do it and we also had the feathers from the donor bird."

Koura was released into the care of Ms Bird that afternoon and five days later, after a couple of test flights, was released back into the wild.

"I took him back out to Jimboomba to release him in his area, and he flew straight, he flew high — it was just awesome to see," Ms Bird said.

"The outcome was unbelievable as far as I'm concerned, it was miraculous really.