Hey, lazyweb?

[ysobel]

...how does one take care of a baby bird that fell out of a nest (and was picked up so it wouldn't get run over, since the nest was over a parking lot)?

ETA: I think we just made the situation worse. >_< Tried putting it back in the nest, and the other two fell out. Into the parking lot. And I haven't seen either parent return to the nest.

Closest rehab places I've found are not close enough. I've left a message with the closest. I don't know what to do. There's nowhere safe to leave the birds outside, we're sure as hell not going to try for the nest again (it was an Adventure), I'm not even sure the first one (third one? whichever; the one we put back) will make it; and argh.

Okay, they called back and said putting them in the nest was the best strategy, and the "if you handle them, the mom will reject them" thing isn't necessarily true. (I know it's true for things like bunnies, but apparently not for birds? *shrug*) I called someone with a ladder that can come over in a bit and help get them back up.

For the moment, the two are in a box with a t-shirt at the bottom, nestled in the part of the tree we can reach. I don't know if the parents know they're there. (oh, they're making a racket. so are the parents. Poor things.)

FTR, these are ... er. Scrub jays, I think.

ETA 2: Babies are safely back in nest, parents are doing a lot of swooping at anyone who gets close to the tree but otherwise things seem back to normal. \o/

Comments

[ide_cyan]

Do you know if it's a herbivorous or a carnivorous kind of bird? My sister hand-fed the babies when her budgies mated, using seed powder mixed with warm water to make a kind of porridge, but if you've got the kind that gets fed bits of earthworm, I don't know if that's going to be the sort of nutrition it needs.

[ide_cyan]

(she used a syringe with the needle removed to feed them, to inject the food into their mouths)

[krait]

For possible future reference, I do know that house sparrow or starling babies are fed mostly insects, and will not get adequate nutrition from parakeet/tame bird baby food. Since those species happily eat seeds as grownups, I'd guess that that applies to lots of small songbird species.

For sparrows and starlings lots of the sites I've looked at (I, uh, want a pet sparrow someday) suggest using ground-up dog food made into paste (most U.S. rehab places will not take these two species, because they're not native, so people who want to "save" lost babies are on their own).

[phoenixsong]

Maybe call your local shelter or animal control people. They should be able to give you some suggestions.

[staranise]

I can't ask work until Thursday (I work at a bird-centric petshop) but this might be a place to start.

[azurelunatic]

Birds are not so good with the smelling-stuff thing.

[phoenixsong]

Oh good, glad to hear everyone's back where they belong!

*hug*

[krait]

In a word, yes. (Too late now, I see from the happy conclusion of the post, but for future reference:

Most birds have a sense of smell about like a human's; could you smell it if someone briefly picked up your kid?

If the nest is in an unsafe place, or has fallen onto the ground, you can move it to somewhere nearby that's safer; the babies will call and the parents will find them.

If they're fluttering about like they're trying to fly, leave them alone -- they'll learn! Mum and Dad have booted them from the nest for this reason, and are probably still hanging around to feed them -- the barn swallows at my grandmother's place did this. Little baby sat on the back patio and cheeped *pitifully* while failing to fly... but every now and then you'd see a parent swoop down and feed it, or flap repeatedly to encourage it.)