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Today i had someone call me and drop off a baby bird, they knew i would take it in. Well, i asked them if there was anyway to put it back in the nest but we had a really bad storm and the nest apparently blew out of the tree and landed in the middle of the road and the other babies had died.

Well he is a little older, but he is not ready to fly yet. I have been feeding him red wigglers but i think i am going to feed him meal worms tomorrow and a few other vegetables and fruit. Should i feed him water through a syringe?

(Another reason i cannot let him go is because when he fell from the nest he bruised his wing and formed an air bubble , according to the vet whom i took the little guy to.)

Do you have any idea what kind of bird it is? I thought robin but then i noticed he has some blue in his quills.

Hooktor attached this image:

Really hard to tell, the picture is quite blurry, plus with pretty much just pinfeathers it's hard to tell. I could tell you if it was any type of thrush if it was a little more feathery - they all (including robins, and bluebirds) have streaked breasts when they are young. It's also hard to tell how big it is from the pic. Could you give us any comparison (ie as big as...) for some kind of hint?

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The blurryness makes it look like a duckling

(sorry I couldnt be much help )

It is pretty large, four inches from front to back and about 2 from side to side. What else can i feed it? It looks like this.

No idea, looks insectivorey, looking at the beak.

Cute baby

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Okay, well i was reading up and it said that the baby bird will eat mealworms also. Wow! Did he/she love those! The bird has really woken up, he now begs for food and chirps whenever he is hungry (every 1/2 hour!!). I have a window well since my room is in the basement and i am thinking of letting him be outside in there for the first time when he/she is ready so there is no way of it escaping and then slowly moving towards the backyard and hopefully sooner than later getting back into nature.

Watch that you don't overdo the mealies, that shell is a tricky one for them to break down, so mix it up a bit find some squishy bugs

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Beware, when you release him in the backward, cats might be on the lookout for food.


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Well all is well as of now. I now have 4 meals rotating:
1. baby bird formula
2. red wigglers
3. mashed up hard boiled egg yolk mixed with water
4. meal worms

I have rotated these meals and he/she seems to eat very well. Well i best be off to bed since i will be woken up early tomorrow morning!

P.S. I thought that the window well would be a good place to let him explore the outdoors because no animals can get in.

Well this morning i woke up to find the bird dead. I then closely inspected its body and realized its entire body was bruised and one of his wings was not fully attatched. Although it was sad hopefully he enjoyed the good care for a few days...:#(:#(

sorry for your loss i have lost many a baby bird and it never gets easier

I'm sure he did- a lot of times whatever trauma gets them into human care is just too much for their little systems. You did the best and kindest thing you could have done. Just for future reference, a lot of things about feeding baby birds is totally counter intuative. For instance, you really shouldn't give them worms (because not all birds eat worms and tne ones that don't will get a parasite called gapeworm). You don't actually give them water- if your bird is dehydrated you can put a drop or two on their beak but never through a syringe or other dropper. The meal worms were a good idea but they have very little nutritional value- almost none actually. Just becasue it seems that once people know you are the kind of sucker who takes in birds (not a bad thing )they WILL call you again, I would recommend that you check out a site called starling talk. It has a recepie for a diet that is good for raising nearly every kind of bird you will encounter, and a lot of good general info on the basics of raising baby birds. Sorry your little guy didn't make it, but you kept him comfortable and warm, you were a good home for him.

Last edited by akb at 30-Jul-2005 00:32