Animal Control

What to Do If You Find a Baby Bird
Every year in early spring, hundreds of phone calls are fielded from people who’ve found a baby bird. If you’re like most people, you’ll find it difficult to decide what to do (or not do) in this situation. This article is intended to help point you in the right direction for the best possible outcome.

• Featherless, with pink skin
• Can’t move around much or fly
• Still need to be in the nest

Fledglings

• Juvenile birds old enough to be out of the nest
• Too young to be competent fliers
• Spend several days to weeks hopping on the ground, learning from their parents

What to Do If You Find a Nestling

Nestlings (the featherless baby birds) are sometimes blown out of their nest on a windy day or during a storm. And sometimes, the whole nest comes down.
If you find a nestling, take the following steps:

• Look around to see if it fell from a nest that is still intact and in place. If the nest is still there, simply put the baby bird right back in it.
• If the nest has fallen, collect as much of the nest material from the ground as possible.
• Prepare a new nest: Get a plastic container the approximate size of the original nest or cut one to size. Put the nest material into the container and poke a few small holes in the bottom for drainage. If there’s no nest material left, use an old wash cloth or clean paper towels.
• Nail your nest container high up in the tree closest to where you found the nestling, and gently place the baby bird back into the nest.
• Watch from a distance for the mother bird’s return.

Please understand it is a myth that mother birds abandon baby birds touched by human hands. Birds (excluding vultures) have a very poor sense of smell, so mama bird isn’t likely to pick up your scent on her nestling! Rest assured the mother bird has invested time and energy into raising her baby, and nature will prompt her to continue until the baby bird can survive on its own.

You should feel very comfortable gently picking the nestling up and placing it back in the makeshift nest you’ve secured high up in the tree.

The Fledgling Stage

• Instead of a little pink, featherless baby bird, you might run across one a bit older, a fledgling. These are young birds that have outgrown the nest. Flying from the nest to the ground is instinctual in fledglings, but their landing and ground take-off skills are still developing.
• Fledglings spend several days to several weeks hopping around on the ground, learning hunting and foraging skills from their parents. During this period in the fledgling’s development, the mother bird is usually within calling distance of her youngster. She will return intermittently to feed the fledgling while it learns how to find its own food on the ground and continues to mature.

What NOT to Do If You Encounter a Fledgling

• Fledglings are more often “kidnapped” than nestlings because people who find them hopping around on the ground alone assume they’ve been orphaned rather than blown out of their nest.
• If you see a fledgling, you might be tempted to capture it to get it out of harm’s way. You might look around for the young bird’s parents, not finding them, and assume the baby is an orphan and you approach it.
• It’s rare, but there is a slight chance you could be dive-bombed by a mother or father bird as you get close to their baby. If that should happen, it’s your cue to leave the fledgling alone.
• In most cases, however, you won’t see or hear the parents. If you capture the baby to remove it to what you believe is a safer location, what you’re unintentionally doing is kidnapping the fledgling from its mother and interrupting its natural development.
• What you want to do instead is simply keep pets and children away from the area where the fledgling is hopping about. The mother and father will continue to support their young bird from a distance, and within a relatively short time, the fledgling will develop the breast musculature and feathers it needs to fly away to its life as an adult bird.

How to React in an Emergency
There are a few situations which are genuine emergencies and you’ll need to intervene to save the life of the nestling or fledgling you’ve found.

For Nestlings:
If you find a nestling, have followed the steps outlined above, and the mother bird hasn’t returned to the nest within a day or so, do the following:

• Prepare a shoebox with some soft nesting material (clean, dry cloths or paper towels).
• Retrieve the baby bird from the makeshift nest and gently place it in the shoebox. You may also be able to remove the homemade nest from the tree and place it with the bird into the shoebox.
• Put the shoebox in a warm, quiet area of your home. Don’t attempt to feed the baby bird.
• Contact your veterinarian, your local humane society, or a federally licensed wildlife rehabilitator for further guidance. The National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association (NWRA) has a website at www.nwrawildlife.org where you can find links to directories for local wildlife rehab organizations or individuals.

For Injured or Debilitated Birds:
If you find an injured baby bird or one that appears cold, weak, unable to move well, or is otherwise debilitated:

• Very carefully move it to a shoebox prepared as described above.
• Again, don’t try to feed it, and contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator immediately for further guidance.

Should You Keep It?
Many people who rescue a wild baby bird are tempted to keep it and raise it themselves. There are a few problems with that approach:

• Species-Specific Needs: Nutritional requirements depend on the bird’s species. For example, some species eat worms and bugs, while others are seed-eaters. Worms can be toxic to seed-eaters.
• Legal Issues: It is against the law to raise wildlife without a license.
• For information on becoming a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, visit NWRAWildlife.org.