Sadly, I tried to save a baby bird this weekend, but he was too injured from what appeared to be a 25’ drop to the ground(judging from the adult bird squawking from the nearest tree), so he only lived three hours or so after I noticed the cats becoming interested in something on the ground. I think he might have decided too soon to try to fly, since he had many, but not all, of his feathers.
I’m still wondering what it was though. It was about 5 inches long from head to tail (or a rather sizable baby) with black legs, black or very dark gray feathers, light gray down, and a beak that was black on the outside and orange-yellow inside. BTW- I live in the North East of the US.
My guess is that it was a baby crow, any thing else it could have been? If I ever find another, caring for it might be easier if I can identify the type. Hopefully, no more fledglings will need rescuing, though!
Um–what kind of adult bird was “squawking nearby”? That might be–A Clue!! :eek:
Seriously, though…
Did it have splotches all over its breast, or was it solid color? Splotches, yes–baby robin. Splotches, no–baby starling.
Eh, not big enough to be a baby crow. A baby crow big enough to be mostly feathered would have been much bigger than 5 inches.
Baby birds do occasionally fall out of the nest, but most of the time–they’re pushed. By a bigger, stronger sibling. It’s just Darwinian Selection at work, it’s perfectly natural, don’t sweat it.
Hey! Pictures!
Baby starling.
http://www.angelfire.com/biz3/starnus/id.html
Baby robin (scroll down).
http://birds.cornell.edu/BOW/AMEROB/
Baby crow (huge bird, huh? Probably not what you found.)
http://www.crows.net/orphans.html
Well, yes, it would have been a good clue, but it was almost dark out, so I didn’t see it, just heard it. I figured it was on one of the lower branches, so that’s how I guessed where the nests were.
I think the poor unfortunate was a starling, judging from the pictures. I’m wondering though, if what we call crows up here are what they really are…those baby crows looked as big, if not bigger, than the adult birds everyone insists are crows. They sure * look * like crows.
There is bird that’s intermediate in size between a starling and a crow, called a “grackle”.
Picture. http://www.yankeegardener.com/birds/grackle.htm
The iridescence IRL is not nearly as noticeable as in this picture. IRL, they basically look black, with long tails, that are nearly as long as their bodies. Grackles are those big black birds that are bigger than robins that you see walking around on the front lawn, making horrible noises that sound exactly like a rusty gate hinge. Starlings are black, but smaller than robins, with short stubby tails. Crows are really huge birds, the size of your forearm, and their tails are what you might say was “in proportion” to their bodies.
Crows don’t usually spend much time hanging around Suburbia, like walking around on the lawn or roosting in your ornamental crabapple tree making an ungodly racket. Those are grackles and starlings.
The reason I didn’t suggest that your orphan might be a baby grackle is because grackles nest in dense evergreen growth, like that neighbor’s yard with all those overgrown spruce trees. Starlings nest right up against your house, in the trees, in the gutter, at the top of the downspout, under the front porch roof, wherever they can find a toehold. You don’t usually find baby grackles on the ground, at least not as often as baby robins and starlings, since you probably don’t spend much time prowling around under your neighbor’s spruce trees. But it’s fairly common to go out to your car and find a baby starling there in the driveway, plop.