How should I care for this little sparrow?

Factual Questions
1

We recently uncovered a nest of young sparrows living in the space under our window AC unit. By the time we got to them, one bird was dead, another was ailing and third was reasonably healthy. The healthy one took off in short order, leaving us with a maturing but obviously unwell sparrow. Its feathers have come in but it’s missing some in its back and underbelly sections. I’m guessing it’s fledgling age, but neither I nor my girlfriend really knows much about this.

We’ve taken the bird in, put it in a makeshift nest of tissue paper, and are feeding it baby bird formula and water through a syringe. We don’t intend to keep it as a pet, but we would like to help restore it to health before letting it go. Do any Dopers have experience raising a foundling bird? How often do you feed and water it? How do you know when not to feed it? What are some signs that it’s responding well to our care?

Thanks lads and lasses.

2

Sorry to hijack, what about the bird’s parents? Mother nature can be a real bitch sometimes.

3

We don’t really know if mom and dad bird are still around. We had hoped to restore the foundling to the old nest tomorrow, but we don’t know if any parent birds will return to care for it.

4

I used to feed mine peanut butter and only when it was chirping. Go to your local college and ask in the ornithology section about proper care and feeding. If they don’t have the information, they will be able to direct you to an individual who will know. It is best, however, if you can find a place that takes in these animals. Hopefully your college will know that information too.

This page has information on general care.

5

Ooh, I managed to find a site that might be more helpful: The Midwest Bird and Exotic Animal Hospital in Westchester, Illinois. It’s for pets, but they should know bird care. They also have links to other organizations including one in Elburn that gives nice instructions on what you should do when you find a baby bird.

Good luck!

6

I wish to caution Nonsuch that even under the best of circumstances, caring for orphan songbirds has a success rate of only about 50%. If the little darling doesn’t survive don’t be too hard on yourself - you can do everything right in these cases and still fail.

Ideally, if the parents are still about returning the little guy to them is best - many birds will still feed and care for a fledgeling that’s out of the nest, if they can locate it. Of course, it can be difficult to determine if the parents are still about. Leaving the baby bird vulnerable to predators isn’t a good thing, either.

If the bird is eating that’s a good sign.

So, good luck and I hope everything works out.

7

Can you call a wildlife rescue center? I found a baby robin on the road yesterday and after feeding it some ants and crickets I got a wild animal rehab agent to come get it. (Crickets can be purchased at your local pet store, in case you’re unsuccessful at gettting ahold of animal rehab.)

8

Sorry to turn this thread around, but really, if one finds a wild animal or bird, it should really be left alone. While people may have the best intentions, the reality is that the chances of an “orphaned” youngster surviving to adulthood are quite slim. From and article published by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources:

***Nevertheless, whenever a newborn fawn or a nest full of baby cottontails or raccoons is discovered by a human, it is universally assumed that the animals are orphaned. The youngster’s fate is usually sealed as it is promptly “rescued from the wild.”

Many wildlife babies die soon after capture from the stress of being handled, talked to, and placed into the unfamiliar surroundings of a slick sided cardboard box. Should the animal have the misfortune of surviving this trauma, they often succumb more slowly to pneumonia, a host of other diseases, or undernourishment.

Whether they are adults or young, all species of wildlife have highly specific needs for survival. “Rescuing a baby from its mother” not only shows bad judgment it is also highly illegal. ***

I don’t want to come off like an uncaring a-hole, but trying to rescue wildlife is usually not giving them any better chance at all.

9

I think the most recent instance where the husband and I intervened was in the case of a robin’s nest with fledgelings that overturned during the start of a thunderstorm. One of the babies even wound up in a bucket of water.

All we did was bring them in, put them in a quarantine cage, offer them a little food, plentiful water, and left them alone in a warm, quiet corner to dry out. (The near-drowing case was in particularly bad shape, but all were soaking wet)

I don’t think they ate anything, and the next morning, dry and protesting vigorously, we took them back out to the yard and released them where the nest had been. We then backed off and got into our pick up truck and settled down to wait. It took about 20 minutes, but a pair of adult robins showed up, looked quite surprised, and started stuffing worms into the little ones.

But we’ve kept birds for years, we had what was needed at hand, and we really did just the minimum needed. It’s one thing to keep them overnight when the alternative is near certain death (like winding up in a full bucket of water), quite another to keep for anything length of time.

I agree, it’s best to leave the wild things alone, but the OP had already taken the orphan in, so it’s a question of what to do going forward.

A wild life rehabber is a good answer, but they aren’t always willing to take in songbirds, mice, and the like - it’s not like there’s a shortage of them, anyhow, common and even for the experiened the odds of success are low.

10

Messinger Woods Wildlife Care and Rescue Center’s "http://www.webbedworks.com/messingerwoods/babybirds.htm ".

If the parents won’t return, the best course of action is to take the sparrow to a wild bird rescue center. They have special training and experience in caring for injured and abandoned birds, hopefully they can rehabilitate your little one.

11

We currently have some baby sparrows at the vet clinic I work at. We are feeding them cat food mixed up with water so its more liquid-y. Not the dry food, but like the puree stuff in a can. Sounds kind of weird but I hear of people doing it all the time! They’re all healthy and active and lunge at the syringe when I feed them.