I was out mowing the lawn. BEFORE I ran it over with the mower, I saw a baby bird, obviously fallen from a tree. Without touching it with my hands, I moved it to a safer (safer from the mower) spot. Lie to me regarding its chances.
Part of me thought it could even be more humane just to run it over with the mower… but I don’t have the heart for that sort of thing. It probably ended up as a snack for a cat, dog, fox etc., which is probably not a nice way to go either. But I’d rather be lied to about its chances.
Depending on the type of bird, the parents may continue to feed and protect it even after it has fallen (or been pushed out) of the nest. Also, depending on the age of the bird (Did it have feathers, yet?), it may be able to survive on it’s own. It may have just had a real bad time with it’s first flying lesson.
The important thing (to you, at least) is that you gave it some chance of survival whereas it had none before (you know, the lawnmower thing). So on the whole, it’s a positive thing.
meanoldman (lovin’ the name btw!) a couple of years ago a baby bird fell out of it’s nest that was in a tree in my front yard. I couldn’t reach the nest to put it back in, so I carefully set it in a little nest I made of pine straw and put it in the shrubbery in front of my house. The baby’s mama or daddy or both, took care of it cause I saw em feed it a few times. Then in a few days it was gone. I figured it got big enough to venture out on its own and left. It’s little swampbear made nest was still in the shrubbery but it was gone. So, I decided the baby bird got big enough and strong enough to fly away. That’s what’ll happen to your baby bird too.
Glad I saw this thread. I’ve raised several robins so I can help here.
If the bird has all its feathers (i.e. flight feathers), it is trying to fledge and has made its first excursion from the nest. Very often young birds end up on the ground this way. If you approached it you probably heard some angry or panicked chirping from the tree; this would be the parents. They’ll continue to feed and protect the fallen chick, which will eventually figure out how to flutter back up into the tree (of course there is, unfortunately, always the chance of a cat getting it first).
If the flight feathers have not fully grown in yet and there is no sound from parent birds, the chick may have been abandoned. Often if a chick is sick in some way, or there are too many chicks to care for, the parents will push it out of the nest.
Keep an eye on it. If the parents are flying down to give it food or scolding anyone nearby, it’s got a chance.
If there isn’t one in your area you can take care of it yourself until it is grown enough to fly) I raised a cockatiel from 3 weeks old, she is fine and is 3 years old now.
First get a plastic shoebox, place half on a heating pad, get some bedding (pet stores usually sell some kind of shredded material like corn cobs or comething fairly cheap. Change the bedding daily, birds poop a lot
Also if it needs liquid food you can get baby bird formula there too along with a syringe. It is easy to damage a baby bird while feeding it, you may want to see if there is a breeder of birds in your area who can teach you to hand feed.
In reality, I made it a little nest of fresh cut grass at the base of the tree. And had the Mrs cut up some bologna into really thin (wormlike) strips and tried to feed it.
No luck there.
I couldn’t even see the nest from which it fell, so no happy returns. It had a few (hardly any) feathers, so it was likely a fall not an atempt to fly. And, alas, no wild chirping from any other birds when I approached it. sigh
No problems then. It walked to the nearest source of food, ate till it was content, got the energy to ‘call’ for its parents, got picked up by mommy and is happily back in its nest. Will probably be flying any day now and will stop by to thank you by pooping on your head. That is a birds way of thanking you, so try not to be offended.
The other alternative is that a racoon or other semi-carniverous animal found the little thing and returned it to the nearest bird nest. Problem with this is that the nearest bird nest might actually be a squirell nest and since squirells don’t fly it won’t be able to teach the little birdy to do that so it may spend the rest of its life up in the tree. You’ll see this from time to time with birds. Ever notice a bird up in a tree? That’s why it’s up there, it never learned how to fly.
Let me tell you what NOT to do. First, a sidenote about myself - this is the first time I’ve told this story and, since I’m at work, I hope I don’t cry.
Walking through the local park, very busy area, lots of dogs, people, etc. sssooo, hear chirp chirp of very young bird…track it to the bush at the side of the lake…see nest up in tree nearby and try to do the right thing which turned out terribly, terribly wrong.
Got someone to boost me up, put little bird back in nest. HOWEVER, apparently he had a brother/sister in the nest already and when I reached up, the brother/sister flew out in absolute panic, followed by the one I just put there. One headed out over the lake and despite my silent, heartrending pleas, didn’t make the flight across the small lake, landed in the water, went over the small falls and, although we ran under the bridge, reached into the water to try to get him where he was stuck under a rock, he died.
Unfortunately, so did the other one…when it struck out across the lake and didn’t make it either.
I’ll never forget the paniced, chirping noise as it went over the falls and our attempts to get him/her out of the water. Nor will I forget momma robin who ws sitting on the rail with a beakful of bugs for the little ones who, due to my stupidity, were no longer there.
That is my last attempt at trying to fix things…I should have left him/her in the damned bush.
Your not so mean after all…
I hate to see those bologny worms go to waste, did you finish them off?
if you find another baby bird, you gotta go the sock-puppet route, grab one of your matless tube socks and adorn it to look like one of the little guys parents.
don’t forget the sound effects, “Peep…Peep…Peep” you can throw one of those, “Songbirds of the Meadow” cassettes on for ambient effect,maybe one of the calls will belong to your dependents species…