This afternoon i found a fledgling in the road and after a while, I picked it up as I didn't see the parent come down to feed it. I've taken it home and after a couple of hours, it took mealworms from me which made me feel good. Anyway, after looking on a few websites regarding wildlife, I realised I'd made a big mistake. The website said it was important not to touch any fledgling as the parent bird would still be around and they would continue to feed it and show it how and where to find food. I'm going to take it back first light and leave it in a shoebox near to where I found it and hope the parent returns. I thought human scent would deter the parent but the website said birds have a poor sense of smell so that wouldn't be a problem. Hopefully it will all turn out well.
Not going to lie, when I saw the title of this post I thought it was going to be about something else...
LOL at the replies! Yes, this is my first encounter with a Great Tit chick. I would rather it be a Great Titted chick as it's been a while....
It honestly wasn't! It wasn't until I saw the replies that I realised my error. Are we allowed to post pictures up? I could post a couple of the bird just to clarify.
Yeah, pictures of birds are fine. It's similarly clothed humans that are the problem. Just don't make the pictures so big you have to scroll to see them.
The parents should still be in the area where you found it, it will call to them. When you find baby birds that either can't hop or don't have pin feathers, that's when you need to help them. Fledglings look helpless but they'll climb into bushes to sleep, and the parents keep watch
Yeah, I looked it up online and realized what a mistake I'd made, but it was dark by then so I didn't want to chance leaving it incase a fox or cat got it. It started taking mealworms from me then refused for a couple of hours, so I went to the local pet shop and bought some waxworms. They go down a treat so now I don't really know what to do. I just don't want it getting too tame so I've joined an online nature forum and asked for advice as to what to do. ---------- Post added 14th May 2014 at 01:01 PM ---------- When we put it roughly where we found it this morning the parent bird(s) didn't show up which is why I brought it back.
Mealworms and waxworms sound like a good idea. I'm not sure if crickets might be better ( you can amputate all or part of the leg to make it easier, if you remove all of it you will lose protein) because I believe they have less fat.
Sad news. Today I left to take a neighbours dogs out and I forgot to shut the lounge door properly. When I came home "Jimmy" didn't chirp like he always does so I started looking for him everywhere. After a while I looked in the bathroom and he had drowned in the toilet, of all places. Now I know some may say "Well it was only a bird" but he had a character and would land either on my head, or on my shoulder whenever I got up from the sofa. He'd fly down to me when I was watching TV and chirp until I fed him. I understand now how some people get attached to their pets so much and miss them when they die. I really genuinely love animals and I have a knack of getting wildlife to trust me. Gutted.
Totally thought this thread was going somewhere else....seems like everyone else thought the same thing! :roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:
Sorry about Jimmy. My mom and I tried to rear this baby mourning dove, but it died after a short time. Another time we rescued an "injured" pigeon and named it Duchess, and "she" escaped from the garage one day.
