- Apr 11, 2012
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Close to 9 PM this evening a neighbor and her son showed up with a baby bird. She told me they were sitting on their porch when they saw it fall out of a old huge tall pine tree and land on it's side. She told me it can fly a little bit across the grass but can't achieve altitude yet. Seems I was considered a better chance for it then leaving it in the field for the local cats or wildlife to find.
They knew I'd raised an orphaned mockingbird after it came out of a tree by falling literally under my nose. If I hadn't looked down he'd of been stepped on. His siblings were also knocked out by blue jays but neither survived. I was lucky, a neighbor had done wildlife rehab in a nearby state so I went to give the bird to her but instead of taking it she told me what to do. Pretty much became a bird mama after that. He was young enough to accept me once I got baby bird formula down his throat. I raised him, got him flying, taught him to hunt with pinhead crickets and meal-worms, and showed him where the wild blackberries and rose bushes were. Put his cage on the porch once he was airborne, opened the door in the morning for him to come and go, then eventually took the cage away as he staked out 'his' territory in the wild and stayed in his tree at night, coming to me and the porch less and less. When the mockingbirds all moved off for the winter he went with them which to me meant I'd done my job.
That said I don't have a clue what to do with this baby robin except open the cage door in the morning and hope it flies off. Impossible to get it back in the pine tree without a fire department ladder, only has a couple baby feathers left and is a good size. Right now it's in a covered cage and I know if it doesn't fly away tomorrow morning it would have to be force fed to survive. As stressed as it already was I believe the stress of being handled along with forcing it to eat could be enough to kill it.
I live in a rural area with no nearby rescue or sanctuary and being tomorrow is Sunday the only thing around here that will be open except for the churches is a gas station. If anybody has any experience with a baby robin I'd really appreciate some input.
Thanks
They knew I'd raised an orphaned mockingbird after it came out of a tree by falling literally under my nose. If I hadn't looked down he'd of been stepped on. His siblings were also knocked out by blue jays but neither survived. I was lucky, a neighbor had done wildlife rehab in a nearby state so I went to give the bird to her but instead of taking it she told me what to do. Pretty much became a bird mama after that. He was young enough to accept me once I got baby bird formula down his throat. I raised him, got him flying, taught him to hunt with pinhead crickets and meal-worms, and showed him where the wild blackberries and rose bushes were. Put his cage on the porch once he was airborne, opened the door in the morning for him to come and go, then eventually took the cage away as he staked out 'his' territory in the wild and stayed in his tree at night, coming to me and the porch less and less. When the mockingbirds all moved off for the winter he went with them which to me meant I'd done my job.
That said I don't have a clue what to do with this baby robin except open the cage door in the morning and hope it flies off. Impossible to get it back in the pine tree without a fire department ladder, only has a couple baby feathers left and is a good size. Right now it's in a covered cage and I know if it doesn't fly away tomorrow morning it would have to be force fed to survive. As stressed as it already was I believe the stress of being handled along with forcing it to eat could be enough to kill it.
I live in a rural area with no nearby rescue or sanctuary and being tomorrow is Sunday the only thing around here that will be open except for the churches is a gas station. If anybody has any experience with a baby robin I'd really appreciate some input.
Thanks
