by Mama Seahorse
Let's begin with the baby bird story, shall we? (Isn't he cute??) Wednesday, as I prepared to leave for class, I told the kids they could head out front and ride their bikes. They had finished all of our early dinner, and I was packing my school bag to put in the car. Once I got out there, I saw them both sitting, cross-legged, on the grass by the "big tree" in our front yard. "A bird!" they both exclaimed. I was skeptical. It can't be a living bird or it would have flown away, right?
Wrong. A real live baby bird, too small to have learned the danger of people, was sitting in the grass only inches away from my two boys. They were beaming. After years of trying to catch a bird to no avail, they were finally making friends with one! He was a tiny, fluffy little thing, but he looked fully healthy even if he couldn't fly yet. He hopped tiny hops one way or the other, following our movements, following us. He opened his mouth wide as if to trust us enough to give him nourishment. He was definitely hungry. The most important thing, I stressed, was not to touch him! I called the police, who sent me along to the wildlife control, who told me no matter what not to touch him. The mother would never return if he was touched. And, off the record, sometimes the mother gets rid of a baby anyway, hey, it's just nature, don't worry about it.
Sigh. So I had convinced them to leave the little guy alone. We backed away from him, and soon, within seconds of his teeny chirps, the momma bird came flitting out of the tree to his side, chirping her reply. It was sweet. I imagined she was comforting him, chiding him for getting into "trouble" perhaps, giving him direction? She flew off leaving him, and he, with renewed purpose, began hopping about, trying out his wings which would only carry him about 4 inches up and forward at a time. But he was headed toward the road. Oh no. So I came near him, but not near enough, to have him follow me back towards the tree... and it was working. He'd hop and flit toward me, and then I'd step farther away... I finally had to leave for school, but I instructed the babysitter and the kids to leave the bird alone. When I came home, I was told the babysitter got gloves for C and lifted him up as he placed the bird back into the nest.
Double siiigh. He was so very proud of himself. I was thinking, "Oh my lord, he touched a bird!" and she was thinking, we saved the baby bird! Nobody was on the same page here. But so ends our baby bird drama.
What would you have done for the baby bird?
Let's begin with the baby bird story, shall we? (Isn't he cute??) Wednesday, as I prepared to leave for class, I told the kids they could head out front and ride their bikes. They had finished all of our early dinner, and I was packing my school bag to put in the car. Once I got out there, I saw them both sitting, cross-legged, on the grass by the "big tree" in our front yard. "A bird!" they both exclaimed. I was skeptical. It can't be a living bird or it would have flown away, right?Wrong. A real live baby bird, too small to have learned the danger of people, was sitting in the grass only inches away from my two boys. They were beaming. After years of trying to catch a bird to no avail, they were finally making friends with one! He was a tiny, fluffy little thing, but he looked fully healthy even if he couldn't fly yet. He hopped tiny hops one way or the other, following our movements, following us. He opened his mouth wide as if to trust us enough to give him nourishment. He was definitely hungry. The most important thing, I stressed, was not to touch him! I called the police, who sent me along to the wildlife control, who told me no matter what not to touch him. The mother would never return if he was touched. And, off the record, sometimes the mother gets rid of a baby anyway, hey, it's just nature, don't worry about it.Sigh. So I had convinced them to leave the little guy alone. We backed away from him, and soon, within seconds of his teeny chirps, the momma bird came flitting out of the tree to his side, chirping her reply. It was sweet. I imagined she was comforting him, chiding him for getting into "trouble" perhaps, giving him direction? She flew off leaving him, and he, with renewed purpose, began hopping about, trying out his wings which would only carry him about 4 inches up and forward at a time. But he was headed toward the road. Oh no. So I came near him, but not near enough, to have him follow me back towards the tree... and it was working. He'd hop and flit toward me, and then I'd step farther away... I finally had to leave for school, but I instructed the babysitter and the kids to leave the bird alone. When I came home, I was told the babysitter got gloves for C and lifted him up as he placed the bird back into the nest.Double siiigh. He was so very proud of himself. I was thinking, "Oh my lord, he touched a bird!" and she was thinking, we saved the baby bird! Nobody was on the same page here. But so ends our baby bird drama.What would you have done for the baby bird?
Comments (7)
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/attracting/challenges/orphaned
this is the best advise I have for baby birds. Your kiddo's bird should be fine. Mom bird should come back and be happily reunited.
Hope this is reassuring. :)
**it won't let me edit... if the link won't work, cut and paste this into your browser's address bar....
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/attracting
/challenges/orphaned
I had to cut the two sections in half but put the whole thing in the address bar. Lots of good info there. **
Aw, the part about the mommy bird coming down to "talk" to her baby was really sweet. I hope all is well in the bird's nest!
I know this is what everyone says, but we have handled baby birds often when they fell out of the nests on our patio with no problem at all. As the parent birds are familiar with you, they seem to understand this was helpful. You did the right thing here.
My sister found a bird once. But it was an adult bird. She held it and walked around with it following her. We took pictures of it also. It ended up making a nest in our shed. >_<
Also, many baby birds fall from the nest in our tree (Which gets a new "family" every year it seems), and they fall and the husband just puts the baby back up there and thats that.
I do think, that a REALLY GOOD wash of the hands is necessary afterwards, and I wouldnt reccomend HANDLING them constantly, but I think ALL boys, touch a bird a few times in their lifetime.
Two words...Hand sanitizer ;)
@mrsengeseth@xanga - thanks! that aritcle was very reassuring! I looked for the bird and didn't see him around anymore, and since we had noticed him stretching his wings out and trying to fly, I am hoping he found his flight and followed his mama. It is good to know though that a small touch from a little boy won't keep the mom from returning. :)
It was really amazing to see that once we backed away from the little guy, the mom flew right down out of the tree, like she'd been keeping an eye on him the whole time.
I've rescued some baby owls once, but they were injured and it didn't matter if I touched them cause they needed medical help anyway. They fell from the nest and got caught in my fence. Well, one of them did. The other almost became diner for my dog. So I had to take them into a bird rescue place. Birds have a lot to worry about in this world now. It's cute that your kids "saved" him, or atleast watched out for him. =]