I'll take care of it for you
Posted on 05/10/2013 10:58:41 PM PDT by djf
I have a birdhouse on my back porch. About a month ago, I looked inside with a flashlight and there was an egg.
A week or ten days ago, it hatched. Since then, the parent birds have been flying back and forth seems like 25 hours a day carrying grubs, bugs, I dunno, whatever baby birds eat.
BTW, it is a chickadee or a sparrow, just one of those small, nondescript grey songbirds.
The parents are very wary and stay in the distance when I am on the back porch.
Today, I go on the back porch, I have a small piece of wood to cut, I fire up my circular saw and feel something bounce off my back. I look around, don't see the parents, but on the ground near the porch is this little baby bird.
Sucker has eyebrows like Leonid Brezhnev!
So I carefully as I can pick it up and put it back in the next. Now I have heard in the past about NEVER touching baby wildlife because the parents might just leave them - and I am not sure, but He's alone in the nest now, and the parents seem to have retreated somewhere.
So what should I do? Try to feed it? I don't want it croaking on my back porch. What would it eat? Worms? Grubs? Should I get crickets or something from a pet supply store?
Any ideas?
That’s great!
About a month ago, I got to see an abandoned hummingbird get adopted by a little mom that only had one egg hatch (they usually have two, the second didn’t make it). The rehab person handled the baby without gloves and good ol’ Phoebe just counted beaks, a little startled, and started feeding her new chick right off the bat. Her newest clutch is on fledge watch.
Well, I’ve seen the parents on the fence. Most of my garden is in the backyard around this porch.
And from the looks of it, they are bringing him back live food. Grubs and caterpillers and the like.
So I was wondering about worms - I have a mondo compost pile back there and if you dig down a foot, there are billions of those red worms everybody says to use in your garden. Seems like they’d be just about the right size, this bird doesn’t look big enough to handle a good sized nightcrawler!
Then an eyedropper and some mashed worms should work. If you see the parents, they’ll probably get back to work if you stay out of sight. Just sent a prayer for you and the little feathered one.
Thanks!
I’ll keep an eye out for the parents, they may be just taking a break, or got a bit spooked.
If they’re not back in the next day or so, I might have to rig up some kind of shoe-box deal. and try feeding it something. Worms, maybe I’ll soak some dog biscuits till they’re mushy. Something should work!
Yay, for mom and dad back on the job. I have rescued a few squirrels in my time, and definitely learned a new found respect and understanding for the lives of wild moms and dads.
Hopefully you can just keep an eye out for a few days, and make sure things are back to regular. The good news is, they grow extraordinarily fast :o
Thank You Lord, for blessings unexpected.
Tatt
I’m thinkin’ this threads’ for the birds.
Parents won’t come back is myth
Lol
Hall Monitor
Hilarious
You can get some Kaytee handfeeding formula to carry it through. Remember that baby birds grow up quick, if it’s already falling out of its nest it’s only a week or two away from flying away for good.
Precisely my reaction
We shoot em round here for practice
I actually caught a confused Robin in air circling around me in one of my glass car wash bays
I grabbed it in one very luck grab.....coddled it and took it outside and released it to fly away handsomely
A soccer mom and her kids watching got misty eyed and cheered
It felt good....to release a quivering noble bird like the earnest robin to flight from my own hand felt really amazing....like giving life to flight
No worries...I still shoot and eat dove and duck
The Grub, Bug and Fishworm Preservation Society (GBFPS) opposes all efforts to rescue any birds unless they are entirely seed eating.
The GBFPS’s official position is that international peace is impossible as long as huge vicious birds are allowed to prey on little critters. So “Kick the Chick!”
Lol finally someone said something...
The parents will take care of it if you leave the area in peace.
I found out last year that most birds go through a stage where they leave the nest and are pretty helpless on the ground. It can take anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks before they’re really flying.
During this time, the parents take care of the baby.
It is VITAL that humans not interfere in this process. The baby needs this time on the ground to learn, strengthen it’s wings and get stronger. It’s a natural part of their development and if we interfere, they will die.
Many fledglings are lost during this time, but that’s part of nature. (We’ve got a hawk around here who’s getting great dinners off our fledglings.) The ones who make it are doing great within a week or two.
I had heard that, too. But last year I put one back in the nest and the parents kept feeding it. They didn’t abandon or avoid it.
Hahahahaha .... that’s pretty good!
Don’t even start feeding the bird, It’s more work then you can deal with... Sounds like the baby jumped out of the nest.. I have taken care of 2 of them that did that.. WOW, Talk about a ton of work... Stick it back in the next and keep an eye on it... The thing about touching a baby bird is not true according to my VET... You have to feed a baby bird every 20 mins while the sun is up.. You don’t want to even start that job!
I have successfully raised young birds feeding them canned catfood. I used a popsicle stick split in half lengthwise and blunted as a spoon to shovel it into their mouths.
It was awesome watching Woodrow learn to fly. He perched on a stick and hurled himself into space in my general direction, and bounced. But about the third try he made it all the way to me—maybe 5 feet.
A couple of days later I turned him loose. I guess I have maybe a 50% success rate.
I'll take care of it for you
You have done about all you can do.
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