It’s that time of year; we have nests in every tree. Friday, a fledgling was on the ground hopping around. We kept the dogs away, and monitored from afar. By dusk the momma bird had not shown up and baby was looking pretty bad. I pipetted water,then glucose, and baby perked up. We then fed a cat-food/egg yolk mix all weekend and he’s doing great.
But, we want to hand him off to pros. There is a wildlife rescue about 45 minutes away, so I was gonna drive there today. Problem is, if he is non-native or undesirable species they will kill him. If that’s his fate we will continue as we have been doing.
I share your instincts about saving wildlife, but I have pretty much adopted the attitude of letting nature take its course with baby birds. Even if “nature” means “eaten by my Jack Russell terrier”.
Well, I’m the realist in the relationship. A few years ago my gf found a tiny baby possum. We bottle fed, then drove to a wildlife facility that took it from there. She made a large donation to the center.
Meanwhile, every year I trap and relocate possums and racoons from our barn. I never mention the irony.
My favorite wildlife irony: I have quite a few friends with rural properties who use Havahart traps primarily as a means of holding possums and raccoons still so they can be shot through the mesh of the trap.
If you keep it, it will probably bond and you will be its flock. They are very social birds, related to mynas, so you might be able to train it in conversation.
Yep - Starlings are exempt from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act ( unlike virtually every native bird in the U.S. ) and can essentially be killed with impunity. But they are excellent mimics and apparently pretty engaging pets, assuming local ordinances allow it ( and you had even the slightest interest having now bonded with him ).
Yep, I’d guess a starling although it’s hard to be sure until they feather out completely.
Wildlife rehabs really aren’t enthused about these. If he’s bonded to you at all and he’s eating then have at it, though I must warn you sudden fatalities in baby birds being fostered by humans are quite common. He’s probably old enough to be past that, but it could still happen.
Not sure if what you’re feeding him is ideal, you might want to do a bit of research on that.
Oh I think starlings are beautiful (well, the adults are). Baby birds always look like they have bed head! Starlings are greedy little things though. They steal the nests of other birds. So if that one lives, bonds to you and breeds, you might one day have a yard full of nothing but starlings!
I was riding my bicycle home from work one day and paused to watch two flying flocks of starlings. They were like sixty or eighty in each group and the two groups were reeling about and flying cleanly through each other in sheets. It was pretty amazing.
But, yeah, in the wild, they are generally about as useful as squirrels.
I think starling also.
I have a friend who is a federally licensed wildlife rehab person. When people bring her starling fledgelings, she feeds them to whatever carnivore or omnivore critters she has ('coons, foxes, raptors.)
Yesterday I watched a parent starling feed a fledgeling; but the young un had more feathers than in your pic, and could fly, albeit clumsily. I root for all the baby birds and critters, but if my dogs or cats get them, well, Darwin and it was meant to be.
I’m not sure about your state but I believe in NC that’s actually illegal. . . well, it is for foxes in Wake County. If you trap a fox near where I like you legally have to kill it, or let it go again. You can’t “legally” relocate it. Concerns about spreading rabies and such.
Correct. I got approval from the PA state game commission originally for relocation of problem raccoons. I showed proof of an approved site for release. For possums it was just, “hey, possums also?” and they said sure.
As an aside: the incidence of rabies in possums is very low.
The only book comparable in ways to Finnegans Wake, by Vladimir Nabokov:
Pale Fire
A POEM IN FOUR CANTOS
CANTO ONE
1 I was the shadow of the waxwing slain
By the false azure in the windowpane;
I was the smudge of ashen fluff - and I
Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky.
).
