I found this little guy/gal in my paddock all by himself. He can't fly and fell asleep in my hand while we were taking pictures. He looks almost old enough to be on his own, but not quite. Any clues what to do with him? The tree he was under is huge and assuming his nest is up there somewhere. I couldn't leave him in the paddock to end up under horse feet so he's in a feed bucket right now with a towel.
here he is right before he fell asleep.
I didn't touch him without gloves.
Oh wow, what a lucky fella to be discovered by you. I sure hope someone will come along and give you some tips as to what it's and how to care for it. I wanted to say, he maybe a baby titmouse?
Hi DD, Did you want to take care of him yourself or hand him off to a rehabber?
It's a lot of work to take care of a little bird like that but if you or a family member want to do it I would contact this member for advice if only on how to temporarily feed it.
http://davesgarden.com/members/jylgaskin/
The 4th post in this thread tells where to look for a wildlife rehabber for your area.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/805666/
Hope this helps. Pelle
Thanks guys! I knew this was the right forum to come to! Immediate answers. Checking out the thread and will contact the member listed.
Will update on what we do!
Small bits of cat food would do as an 'emergency' food until you can get it to a rehabber for treatment.
Resin
Thanks Resin!
Here's the response I got from the wildlife rehab link. Thanks again everyone!
Hi Kristen,
It looks like perhaps a Mockingbird or Catbird almost fledgling you found. It may have jumped or fallen from the nest a day or so early possibly or could be just ready to fledge, difficult to tell what primary feather growth is at from the angle of the picture.
I would recommend taking a large margarine bowl or basket and either nailing it to the tree it was found under or tying the basket in it as high as you safely can. If using a bowl put a few small holes in the bottom of it about the size of a nail (to let water drain out) and then put a bit of hay or straw in the bowl or basket and the little bird.
The parents will feed their babies as long as they are within "hearing" distance, they don't have to be in the original nest. That it has been handled makes no difference to the parent birds. It is a myth that birds will not accept their babies back if touched by humans. In fact, the vast majority of birds really don't have much of a sense of smell. :-)
You can keep the little guy inside overnight and get him back out first thing in the morning as they do not eat during the night.
May you have success. ^_^ I'm keeping my fingers crossed for your little friend.
DevilDogs,That was great info, thanks for sharing it.
He is so adorable! Be sure to keep us posted.
Definitely a Tufted Titmouse - it has the crest, and orangey flanks.
Resin
Well, I went out to feed the horses this morning and planned on looking to see if I could see the nest or momma or anything and as I'm standing there feeding my one horse, another baby drops at my feet and the mother/father immediately starts fluttering around having fits. So, I did what any evil human should do and immediately stole the baby . I scooped it up and took it inside and dumped it in the feed bucket with the other one and brought them both outside and put them a short distance away from me and watched as I continued to feed. It didn't take long. The adults soon showed up and started feeding the babies! I took an empty pot and put some hay in it and nailed it to the tree as soon as I was done feeding and put both babies inside and the adults continued to feed them in there. It didn't take long for one of the babies to fall out and try to climb back up the tree so I put him back in the feed bucket at the base of the tree. The other one held on for about 2 hours before he too fell out and tried to crawl back up the tree so they are both now back in the bucket. I don't think they are safe on the ground like that, but they can't jump out of the deeper bucket and end up under the horses feet or in the dog yard. They are trying to fly so I think they should be able to soon. I took a bunch of pictures. Too many to post so I uploaded them to picasa. Link below if anyone's interested.
http://picasaweb.google.com/kbilliu/BabyBirds#
Excellent result!
Resin
A job well done! Thanks for sharing the outcome with us.
Outstanding news DevilDogs!!! I looked through all your pics their wonderful! Titmouse are such great bird to have around.
You did an excellent job! Thank you so much!
Pelle ^_^
Thanks everyone here for the help! I wouldn't have know where to start without you guys!
It's going to rain so I think I'm going to move them to hang on the fence of the dog yard and prop something over them to try and keep them dry yet keep open for the parents. I've moved them around a bit and the parents keep feeding them so I don't think they care too much that I'm involved somewhat. There's a black racer that hangs out over in that general area so I think getting them up on the fence is probably the best bet.
Wow, great story. You're such an animal rescue-er, sol!
I'm feeling like jumping out of my nest, can I come there? I don't like cat food too much...
I'd say only if you'll fit into a feed bucket but your always welcome and I'd have someone to go riding with :-)
(but you get to ride Thump)
LOL - let me think about it!!!
Yeah, okay!
What a wonderful story! I am always so happy when a rescued baby can be reunited with the parents!! Yeah!!! ^_^
I'm so glad those babies, have such a good caregiver. Love the pictures also.
Congratulations DevilDog. What a perfect rescue.
Pelle, would the information that DevilDog obtained from the rehab service be appropriate to include in the sticky?
I'll take care of it after work today. :-)
another update. after updating the rehab lady with the information I updated you guys with yesterday, she told me that by keeping them in the larger bucket, I was preventing them from fledging and keeping nature from running it's course. They kept jumping out because they are supposed to and that the parents will follow them around and take care of them. So I have empty nest, or bucket in this case, syndrome. After her email yesterday, I took the bucket off the fence and put it back under the tree and tipped it a bit so they could jump out, and they did and then I stayed away. When I went out to feed last night, I could hear the adults in the woods next to the house and went over to look. I saw 2, possibly 3 adults so am sure the babies were over there with them somewhere. I just don't want to think about all the bad things in the woods and hope those adults do a good job watching them!
It's weird that there were no adults around when I found that first baby sitting in the paddock next to my colt. But he wasn't as brave as the second one who was the first one to jump out of the pot in the tree and the bucket on the ground so I'm thinking he really wasn't ready and was accidentally out there on his own. Regardless, this was a great learning experience for the next batch of babies and we are going to leave the pot in the tree in case another bird wants to use it for a nest.
You did good. I used to be a rehabber . Perhaps the first one you found knocked its head on a tree root when it jumped or fell out. When some first fledge, they are still pretty immature chicks as far as moving about goes. Without a grass cushion to land on I would think a knocked noggin would easily occur.
I am so glad that we have someone knowledgeable in current rehab techniques to give helpful advise here also!!
That makes sense BB. He was just sitting there looking a bit disoriented and let me scoop him right up. Then he fell asleep in my hand almost immediately so I think he was pretty stressed out too. I thought for a while he may have an injured leg because he kept one leg a bit splayed out but when I moved them back to the bucket up on the fence, I got him up on my finger and he held on pretty well perched there and was perched on the side of the pot on the tree so I'm guessing it was ok. I saw one of the adults in the tree this morning so I hope it was just looking for food for the babies and they are ok. I'm going to be watching for them for a while. I'll have to read up on what they eat and put that out for them. We have a bluebird house we haven't put up yet that my daughter made on a field trip and I have a bunch of decorative one's that at least some of them are functional that I want to put up outside too. This may be a good time to go thru them and get them outside.
Just watch for HOSP after putting up your BB nest box and other cavity dweller attracting houses. HOSP are killers and removal of eggs , fledglings & trapping of adults is legal.
I did not realize how bad the situation can get until recently reading and seeing what they do by checking "images" in the google search engine. The horror stories of their attacks on BB's, Chickadees, and other songbirds is awful. Fortunately I have not personally experienced their nest attacking.
Your home and Paddock sound lovely with horses and birds.......*sigh* ^_^
Sheri
I haven't seen any but that doesn't mean that they aren't here. I will definitely watch for them!
What HOSP abbreviated for? I almost afraid to ask.
house sparrows. wow, I actually know something here!
HOuse SParrow
In most cases, those 4-letter acronyms are the first two letters of each part of the name (some exceptions where this would result in two species with the same acronym)
Resin
Thanks Resin, I just read up on them. Interesting!
Oh dear - does that mean my bird house filled up with HOuse SParrows is really harboring a criminal element in my neighborhood?
Hi Pagan, Sorry to say yes. When I see House Sparrows trying to make a nest in one of my boxes I immediately go out and take the nesting material out. If they insist upon making a nest I either take the house down or plug the hole (making sure there isn't anyone inside first).
Always make sure it's positively House Sparrows before taking any action.
I've been seeing them a lot lately at the feeders (seed and suet).
Darn it.
Thanks for the info!
