a guy took a baby bird?
July 26, 2010 Bird House Feeder
A teen who is a little troubled emotionally (but not violent at all, my dogs are therapy dogs for him) took a baby robin (looks almost full grown but couldn’t fly) after my dogs found it and were pushing it around with their noses but they didn’t injure it. The parent birds were flying around our heads. I couldn’t talk him into just leaving the bird where it was found. He took the bird to his house and said he’ll feed it bird seed they have for the bird feeder.
Can the bird survive? Can I tell him how else to take care of it, what it should eat? How can he help it to fly? I just don’t think it’s right he took this bird, but as I said I couldn’t talk him out of it. His father is in jail, his mother not around, he lives with grandparents who don’t see anything wrong with it. Thank you for help.
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Comments (4)
Hummingbirds are fun, entertaining, full of energy and it’s easy to attract hummingbirds.
It will die. Robins eat insects,worms and fruit. You need to call your local Division of Wildlife and tell them that he has the bird.Tell them that he is troubled and does not know that it is against the law to keep it,nor does he know what to feed it. Try to talk him into giving it to you first. But in the meantime,the bird can eat worms,soft dog food, chopped banana,apple and berries,hard-boiled egg yolk mixed with an equal amount of breadcrumbs and a few drops of water,and it should have a shallow water dish. It needs to be fed at least once every hour during the day. Bear in mind that many older fledglings will not eat,and it may just die from shock.
http://naturesnotebook.org/orphanedrobins.html
Robins eat worms, soft bugs, and fruit. Baby robins eat lots of dirty, mashed up earth worms and some mashed fruit . Bird seed would be a lethal mistake. It will have to be fed often. So hand him a shovel and tell him to start digging for lots of worms.
The bird is a fledgling. This means that it has probably just barely left the nest and it’s parents were taking care of it as it was learning how to fly. Many robin fledglings are found like this and "rescued" because people dont understand that the parent robins are still very much caring for it and that it definitely does not need the care of a human.
Robins are omnivores and need lots of protien in their diet to survive. This is why parent robins feed their young worms and other insects. Bird seed alone will cause this bird a dramatic change in diet and lack in protien and will eventually kill it.
If he honestly wont put the bird back, then tell him to atleast give it a better diet. Feeding it cooked egg whites is a good start. But, I’m sure you can look up more things online that could work as well.
He personally wont be able to teach it to fly. That’s what parent birds do and it cannot be replicated by basically anyone. Especially an untrained person.
The best way that he could care for it would be by returning it with it’s parents. But, I dont really think he will.
The likeliness of the bird surviving it slim to none. I’ve rarely heard of a robin fledgling surviving to adulthood in the care of of anyone but a wildlife rehabilitator.
Hey- Can you in anyway get the bird back to where it’s nest is?
I’d say the chance of the bird living in a cage is almost NONE!
Wild things are best left in the wild,We have oodles of bluebird
boxs here.Every now and then a babybird will fall out.We try to
put it back from where it came.Good luck!