Wondering if anyone knows anything about baby birds. This morning I was driving along and saw crows attacking a baby bird. I pulled over and went back to scare the crows away, and started looking for the baby bird. He was laid on his side and appeared to be dead.

But when I picked him up, he started moving. There were no other birds around, so I took him home. He was very frightened at first and hid in the cage I put him in.

I tried to feed him egg food mixed with water that I give my finches. At first he wouldn't eat, but then he did. Now (5 hours later) he cheeps at me when I watch him. I looked him over and he doesn't seem to be injured.

But now I'm wondering what I will do with him if he lives. I don't know how to teach a wild bird to survive on his own.

Do you have a wild animal center near by?

Is he still fuzzy?

If you wanna take care of him you might go to a pet smart or store like it and get dry baby bird food....you will have to mix it and hand feed him with a syringe.......it needs to be warm...not too warm tho. What type of bird do you think it might be?

Yes, we have wild animal centers nearby. I called them and they have no openings for baby birds. I have no idea what kind of bird it might be.

I have been feeding him eggfood in warm water that I feed my finches. He gobbles it up and keeps cheeping at me. He thinks I am his mom.

Well you are providing the chow.

Just don't regurgitate worms for him...bleh.

Awww how cute just in time for easter.....hopefully he will be a little bird and not a big bird. I would get to the pet store and geld the baby bird food...you should test it on your wrist...kind of like with a baby bottle.

Looks like your gonna be momma bird for a bit.
Can you get a picture of him and email it to me and I will try to help you identify what he is....

Wayzilla and I raised a baby starling that fell from its nest a couple years before DD was born. 22-23 years ago!

It did not even have feathers yet and it's eyes were still closed. I did not figure it would last into the evening.

We fed it sugar water from an eye dropper for the first couple days and then started mushing up meal worms into a paste later.

It learned to fly around the apartment and would go back into its cage when we asked it too or when it got into trouble. It did that a lot.

It liked to land on our heads.

It grabbed a piece of bacon from breakfast one Sunday and snarfed it down. While we were doing dishes it got on top of the kitchen counters and started projectile vomiting bacon goo on us.

Nice times.

I taught it how to hunt bugs and worms in a cake pan willed with soil and hidden buggies.

In late summer I would take it out to the patio and let it listen to the other birds. Finally one day I brought it out and put it into a tree and after a couple minutes it flew off for good to be with the other birds.

believer,

""I have been feeding him eggfood in warm water""

Kinda cannibalistic donchya think?

Aww Bless your kind, kind heart believer !

My kids and Squid are always finding injured birds and we take 'em to the vets and / or a wildfowl centre for specific advice.

how old do you think the baby is? I raised several sets of cockatiels and they go from blind and featherless to something resembling birdies in a couple of weeks. If he has feathers and eyes open you probably won't have to feed him in the middle of the night, but you might.....

Here's some feeding info

Try not touch the bird with your hands otherwise the fledgling becomes contaminated to possibly present mom .

We fed chicks with Pro-Nutro(Oatmeal breakfast serial) and water fed through a syringe without a needle. The Vet recommended this process if the mother bird was not available.

I must tell you we were not always successful.

Ok for a final post or so...

I use Kaytee Exact baby bird formula.

You need to discover what triggers the chick or fledgeling's chug response.

Some require you to actually touch the beak and others require you to approach with the syringe quickly like it's mother.

Once this is established, let the chick take what it needs as not to aspirate it. Feed until you can see the crop bulge.

Keep uf feedings until the chick is eating on it's own and taking water on it's own.

You will need to dip your fingers into the water bowl and touch the beak to trigger the drink response and eventually within a few minutes the fledgeling will catch on.

Once it can fly, you can release, but it will stick around a while until it's instincts take over.

If you were in the Atlanta area, I'd come and get the chick.

Anyways here's some encouragement on what to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z9uS7f6H6Y

The bird is doing fine, and does like to be approached quickly with the food like his mother does. I'm getting better and better at it. Soon he will have me trained. It was very ackward at first, but now it is going well.

He has feathers and can fly a little, but mostly down. Hoping he will be fine.

Thanks for all of the tips. And the video was great.

I do have another question. When I first started feeding him yesterday, I tended to miss his mouth being open, and the food dripped down his breast. Now his feathers are stuck together and kind of matted and hard. Do I need to worry about that?

You can wash him with a warm moist dishcloth.

Just dry him with a warm dry cloth once you have him soaked.

The Kaytee Exact is the best birdy formula, just follow the directions and start out soupy until he can just eat thick chunks from your hand.

BTW, that little dove in the video STILL hangs out at my friend's house who I gave him to after three years.

OH!

Pics, I must have pictures!

Pariah - I am feeding him the Kaytee Exact.

I did wash him with a moist dishcloth, and many of his feathers fell out. Now he is a bit bald around his breast. Is that normal?

I'm thinking that he is a sparrow.

A few lost feathers won't hurt him.

Well look up sparrow in Psalms and understand just how special a sparrow is.

Remember the last shall be first and the first shall be last? The sparrow was the least of all the sacrifice animals, however it's the only one mentioned that builds it's nest in the temple and presents it's young to God himself. We considered them almost worthless in status.

They are first for their obedience to their creator.

Take care of that wonderful creature, he's going to teach you a valuable lesson.

[img]C:\Documents and Settings\user\My Documents\My Pictures\bird[/img] [img]C:\Documents and Settings\user\My Documents\My Pictures\bird[/img]

You're gonna have to upload it to photobucket first.

[img]http://s399.photobucket.com/albums/pp77/digsblues/?action=view&current=bird002.jpg[/img] [img]http://s399.photobucket.com/albums/pp77/digsblues/?action=view&current=bird005.jpg[/img]

Oh well, can't figure out how to put a picture on.

There was plenty enough info there for me to hit the picture.

He's still very much a chick.

When he starts chirping alot, it's feeding time.

The beak could very well be a Sparrow or an Warbler of sorts.

Could be days to weeks before he changes enough to tell.

They all look like a wad of gum covered in dryer lint when they are that age.