Not bats or deer mice this time - this time my Other Half has rescued five baby birds. We think they’re finches of some sort.
Mama finch, despite our efforts to discourage her, built her nest inside our air conditioner box which was causing problems with the air conditioner and also posing a fire hazard. During the effort to move the nest to a nearby but different location said nest fell apart.
That’s how we wound up with a basket of babies.
So yesterday, early evening involved a whirlwind search for baby bird food formula and gathering material to make an artificial nest. The Other Half has successfully raised a baby bird from just hatched to full adulthood before and thus has experience in feeding/caring for very, very young birds. We are hopeful for a successful outcome but realize that even under the best circumstances said outcome is very uncertain at this point.
As of this morning all five are eating, pooping, sleeping, and cheeping. Which is just about all that baby birds do. The eyes are just opening on two of them, so we estimate 3-5 days old for the clutch. The Other Half has committed to feeding them every 3 hours round the clock for awhile.
Our three adult parrots are largely ignoring the newcomers. Which is much preferable to some alternatives.
We’ll have to make sure mama finch doesn’t set up housekeeping in the air conditioner again.
One fatality so far - it was one of the larger babies, but had been weak from the start. It might have been overheated by the hot air from the air conditioner, or something else might have been wrong.
We’ve tentatively identified them as robins, which technically makes them thrushes, not finches. In any case, the four babies are acquiring their first feathers and have their eyes open. The constant peeping is a little maddening, but we’ll put up with it.
Our conure has decided to get protective in regards to them, carefully monitoring my husband’s feeding of the babies, not letting me or the cockatiels get too close, and showng reluctance to be put in its cage in a different room from the babies. Nonetheless, we aren’t letting the conure too close to the babies, or to be around them unsupervised.
We’re trying to research the best way to train them for eventual release, as we absolutely can’t keep them (for one, it would be illegal, and for two, we have enough birds). Granted, being raised by humans isn’t a particularly good start in life for a little songbird but without us death would have been certain. If anyone knows of resources please post them.
My husband is sort of a cross between MacGyver and Diego, yes. He’s… different.
(Part of the marriage negotiations was that we would have no poisonous/venomous pets, and NO SPIDERS!!! Fang less snakes, yes, no more scorpions, tarantulas, or the like. The lionfish was allowed because it couldn’t get far from the tank (and never tried anyway) and the puffer fish because they’re only poisonous when eaten and we don’t eat our pets)
Anyhow, aside from being a little bigger and a little louder not much has changed. Oh, they have a little bit more pinfeather.
Don’t know about pics - we’re having some computer issues in regard to uploading stuff. Google “baby robins” for a picture of similar babies.
Feeding times have become quite the show, with the adult parrots lining up to watch.
The four are getting bigger every day. They are now mostly feathered out and look like birds now, instead of cocktail shrimp (which is what many newly hatched birds look like to me). They definitely recognize my husband as the Source of Food but beg from me, too. They’re standing up now, walking a bit, and able to perch.
Weaning off baby food may start as early as next week. Flying lessons to follow soon after. We’re still trying to figure out a way to introduce the concept of eating bugs and worms which for their species are yummies.
picture of “Runty”, the littlest one of the bunch. The crud stuck on him is baby bird food - they’re messy eaters! He’s about two weeks old. Today he’s twice that size, with much more in the way of feathers. Not my husband’s facebook page, but a relative’s.
Sorry the pic didn’t work, folks, but I did say upthread we’d been having problems uploading.
Yes, 4 out of 5 survivors is excellent. It helps this was not the first time my husband has raised newly hatched birds, but honestly the first couple of days we weren’t sure any would make it.
Today they suddenly “fluffed out”, all poofy down feathers with wings and tails.
The conure was preening the tailfeathers of one of babies today. Under supervision, of course - she’s considerably bigger and stronger, and they aren’t the same species. She was quite gentle, but she won’t be permitted to be that close unsupervised.
Actually, we carried them into the backyard and tried to find some similar looking birds nearby for them to join up with (we hope). They were imitating my conure and cockatiels, especially in regards to eating things, so we’re hoping that will carry over into the wild.
Then I had to go out and get bird food. I couldn’t figure out where all the bird food had gone, I’d bought enough to last through early July, then I remembered - we’ve been feeding twice as many birds as usual this week, and half of them were growing adolescents.
*
>sigh< * Odds are not good for baby birds whether raised by their bio-parents or by people (even less for the people-raised, to be honest) but such is life. We gave them the best chance we could, we can do no more. Keeping them further would not have helped them. Indeed, as this period in their life is one of heightened learning keeping them longer might have impaired their ability to learn what is necessary from other birds.
Abandoned chicks are the natural prey of small weasels, who use them to feed their young. So, in the larger sense, you are not rescuing baby robins, but rather, starving baby weasels.
This time of year there is an abundant supply of small critter to feed baby weasels. We’re saving just a few to ensure a future supply for next year’s baby weasels (and other critters that eat small birds)
