Guide us, LJ!

[rivka]

There's a baby bird in our yard, hopping around and chirping in what sounds like distress. It doesn't seem injured in any way - it's covered a fair bit of ground by hopping, and I've seen it flap its little useless wings.

There's a pair of cardinals that we usually see in the yard next door. When we come into the yard, they hang out on the first-floor roof peeking at us anxiously. I think they must be the parents. The baby has a little bit of a cardinal look to the shape of its head and beak.

We don't know where the baby came from or how it got into our yard. It can't fly. The cardinals have one nest in the yard of the house next door (a chain link fence and other barriers away), but I'm told that they tend to build serial nests and raise more than one family at a time. So there might be a nest closer by to us.

What's the appropriate course of action? Each of us has a different opinion.

Me: As long as the parents are alive and nearby, we should leave the baby alone. It has a better chance with its parents looking after it.

Michael: We should take it to an animal hospital. Or something.

Alex: I think this bird wants to be our pet. I'm going to pick some parsley for it. When we go out again, we need to buy some birdseed.

I'm vetoing Alex's plan that we keep the bird as a pet, but what's a better plan? Help us, LJ.

Updated to add: I don't know why I didn't immediately think to Google "found a baby bird."

Comments

[platypus]

If it has feathers, it's probably fledged and can fly a bit (or almost fly). They always wander around looking vulnerable and horribly helpless at that stage, but the parents stay fairly close and keep taking care of them. Unless there's obvious immediate danger, the recommendation is to leave it alone. If it's hopping into the road, sure, point it the other way, but 99% of the time it's best to leave it be.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Our yard is hedged and fenced, so it's probably as safe there as anywhere. The major predator would be rats. (Unfortunately, they're pretty common around here.)

It started raining buckets this evening, and we couldn't stand seeing that poor bedraggled little baby get wetter and wetter. Michael took out a disposable plastic food storage container, scooped the baby into it, and set it on its side. It can easily hop out and its parents have full access, but it also has a dry place to huddle.

Poor baby bird.

[windypoint.livejournal.com]

When I found a baby piping shrike that had fallen out of its nest, I called up a wildlife rescue and they asked me a series of questions about the situation so they could decide the best course of action. I ended up taking the bird in to be reared by the rescue people, but I'm sure that if the situation had been different in small ways leaving it there may have been the preferred option.

So maybe find the people who could and would take it if needed, and ask them?

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

You might call a bird rehab specialist. Probably not needed, if the parents are indeed the parents and are keeping their beady little eyes on the critter. I have ended up driving some cheeping shoeboxes to the rehab center, but those have been well-meaning efforts by people who brought the cheeper into Wife's nature center. After all, it's an Audubon place, right?

[naomikritzer]

Leave it alone. (1) The parents are probably right there keeping an eye on it. (2) Even if they aren't, if you take it in and try to hand-raise it it will probably die from the shock. (3) And in that case, it won't even get to serve as a meal to a predator and join the Great Cycle of Life.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Also: the major predator here is rats. It's hard to be sentimental about their place in the Circle of Life the way I could be about, say, hawks.

Doesn't change our course of action, but it is a sad thought.

[naomikritzer]

Oh, ick. Not my first choice of predators.

Around here we have raccoons, plus a fair number of raptors (I'm near the Mississippi River and I've seen bald eagles five minutes from my very urban house), but the #1 predator would be the neighbor's cats. (My cats are not allowed out of the house, and thus predate only on wildlife dumb enough to come inside.)

[naomikritzer]

Also, if you want a pet bird, there are lots of less-likely-to-die-on-you options out there. My sister is a bird nut (volunteers at a bird rescue for unwanted parakeets, owns two lovebirds and a quaker parrot) and I could point her in your direction if you want suggestions.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

We SO VERY MUCH don't want a pet bird. With all due respect to your sister, I think they make lousy pets.

[naomikritzer]

Abi would mostly agree with you. She works at a bird rescue and therefore has a really good idea of just how badly things can work out between bird and human.

[boxofdelights]

My husband and daughter work at a raptor rehab center. The birds are always developing foot problems because they just weren't built to perch all day; they're supposed to spend a lot of time on the wing. Does that happen to pet birds too?

[raincitygirl.livejournal.com]

I say leave it be for now. If it starts looking like it's in distress, call your nearest vet or wildlife centre for advice. Don't know about the US, but in Canada vets' offices are legally obliged to take in any injured wildlife that are brought to them, and care for them until they can be moved. And they can't charge the bringer-in.

[boxofdelights]

Leave it be. The magpies who live by us do this every year. It's always fun watching the short-tails flutterhop, hide under things, and scream to be fed; they still can't find food by themselves, but there's nothing we can do about it. If we had a cat, I'd keep it indoors those few days, but despite the feral cats next door and the foxes and raccoons, the baby magpies almost all do survive to start flying.

This is the beginning of the busy season at wildlife rehab! My daughter got to feed a baby screech owl Saturday. It was so scared, she said, it was all huddled up with its eyes closed. She had to pull its beak open to put some food in.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Leave him be.

B

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I like the way Alex thinks.

We picked up a pet sparrow that way when I was in junior high school.

Did I ever mention that story? It's a generally happy one.

He eventually flew away, but came back to visit a couple times -- he'd hang on the outside of the kitchen window and squalk until we'd come to see him, and then he'd squalk at us a bit and fly off.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

That reminds me of "Stellaluna, my favorite book about birds and interspecies adoption. (Actually, it's a favorite in several categories.) I love how the baby fruit bat finds both kinds of happy ending, without pretending either is simple or easy. I think you'd like it, and it would probably be good for Alex to read to Rivka as well.

[curiousangel.livejournal.com]

It's already one of her favorites. Alex has a little game where we each get assigned a role as Pip or Flitter or Flap, and then we all traipse about the house, sometimes holding hands, sometimes running, but always in a line. Oddly enough, she never seems to want any of us to play the part of Stellaluna.