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Spring is the season for Baby Birds

A Fledgling Bluejay

Yesterday evening, on a brief pitstop to my house before rushing back out the door, my neighbor braved my 5-dachschund door bell to ask for my help. A baby Blue Jay was sitting in the middle of her driveway.  What to do? After carefully assessing the bird, noting that it had its feathers and was not cold, I gave her a distressing answer.

“Both parents are close by so the best thing you can do is leave it alone.”

The nest was up in this tree about 25 feet high

Whenever I give this advice, it’s never well received. But Cathleen was good. She didn’t scream and holler and run away to find someone else who would give her a better answer.  She heard my explanation and accepted it with reluctance.

When I got home, I scooped the little nestling into a tissue-lined box to protect it from the night prowling cats.  It spent the night in my guest bathroom shower. This morning, we returned it to its 25 foot high nest in the oak tree and watched as both parents took turns feeding. A happy ending.

Tis the season for baby birds! From now until July, chances are that someone you know will encounter this urgent dilemma.  Although fifty people will give you fifty different answers, here’s what I recommend.

My advice is based on 20 years of getting these calls and seeking help.

• OBSERVE the situation. Is the bird injured? Does the bird lack feathers? Is it in imminent danger from cats? If you answer yes to any of these questions, then you should act. If not, you should bless the creature, move it out of harms way into the bushes and let Mother Nature do her magic. The parents will continue to feed the fledgling until it can fly.  Best you can do is keep your cats in the house.  (Of course, this is good advice anyway.  Cats are the number one killer of birds.)
• Injured birds may not make it. If you rescue an injured bird, call your local vet and ask them for numbers for bird rescuers in town. It’s a good bet they’ll have phone numbers to give you. If it’s a bird of prey, call the International Center for Birds of Prey in your area or your town’s equivalent. If it’s a large water bird, do not approach it. An egret, heron, or other large bird can do serious harm to a well-intentioned rescuer. Best to leave it to a professional rather than losing an eyeball.
• If the bird lacks feathers or appears extremely cold, attempt to return it to its nest. If you cannot reach the nest, pursue a rescuer. In the meantime, get a box, fill it with clean tissues or paper towels (not newspaper, dirt, grass, pinestraw, etc.) and place the bird inside. You can sit the box on a heating pad set to low or Google options that use low wattage light bulbs for warmth. DO NOT place the heating pad in the box.
• DO NOT FEED OR ATTEMPT TO WATER THE BIRD. Birds are delicate creatures whose throats are very tiny. It is very easy to choke the bird with food and water.
• If the bird is hopping, flapping healthy young wings and squawking up a storm, let it be! Chances are its learning to fly and there are probably more of them in close proximity than you realize.

MYTH:  Parents will not accept a bird that has been touched by humans.  Birds usually have a weak sense of smell.  They won’t even notice or care.