I found a baby bird, it has its feathers but its small, what do I feed it, and how do I care for it?

Wondergirl

Find a wildlife shelter in your area and take him there asap. Read this:

Caring for Baby Birds, diet , feeding, finding a baby bird, what to do

RubyPitbull

Wondergirl, I have to spread some more rep around before I can give you more, but wanted to give you a thumbs up for your response. That is a helpful website and you gave a quick response. Good thing you were around.

I have used the wildliferehabber website for birds before and it was really helpful to me.
Wildlife Rehabber-The FIRST thing to do if you have found a wild orphaned baby bird or songbird - General Wildlife Info - Wildlife Info

This one also will give you some other resources to contact:
Birder's World - What to Do if You Find a Baby Bird -

connectuwright, let us know how you are getting along.

bushg

In ohio we have these rescues but I found some black starlings a couple of weeks ago and they would not take them in. because they are not from ohio and they kill our birds here. I tried to help them but they died. I thought how odd for a wild bird rescue group.

mrssittingduck

it sounds like the bird had fledged the nest, which means he left home, not yet able to fly properly or fend for himself but the parents were near by, had i have got to the post as soon as you found it my info would have been as long as he is not injured to put him back where you found him, it is fledging time and the parents will most certainly be around somewhere and be looking for him... however if a center took him in good luck to them and hope he makes it

katie

pompano

Most birds will eat cat food soaked in water until it is soft. the type of birds that will eat this, will open their mouths wide when you approach them.there are breeds that must be tube fed, and you will have to find a rescue site willing to spend time caring for these birds.baby birds must eat every 2 to 3 hours,so I wish you luck.They will need water also.

bushg

pomp, that is what they told me to feed my birds. Mrs, I wish I had known about putting them back, but I was afraid that the cats would get them, How small can they be to put them back? 1 of mine had lots of feathers and I go it from the cat..it's wing seemed to be hurt a bit and the other fell from the neighbors, gutter very small almost no feathers. I thought if we touched they would not take it back. So should we have immediately replaced it?, also someone said that if they are ill the mother pushes them from the nest is this true?

mrssittingduck

Hi bushg,
in your case the birds could not have been put back for the reasons below so dont worry about it .. you did the right thing

if the nest is easily accesible then they can be placed back in the nest, depending on species of bird some are more temprementle than others, so may reject a very young chick and throw it from the nest if it has been touched by humans, however if the parents are off the nest it is usually quite safe to add the little feller back at any stage of development, however if it fell from a gutter the nest would not be easily accesible and taking it to a wild life rehabilitator would have been the best thing to do ..
if the chick has no feathers then it has either been thrown from the nest this could be for one of many reasons ie illness (parents can detect this you are right ) or it could have been thrown because the parents want to start breeding again or it could have been thrown by another bird trying to steal the nest site..

or it could have accidentally fell, if the parents claws are to sharp sometimes they can catch them when leaving the nest and accidentally pull them out of it ,

however if the bird has a lof of feathers even though it is small the chances are that it has fledged and the parents will be feeding it from above, sometimes the chicks are caught up by cats but this is nature... the parents will keep an eye and try to drive off smaller threats ie cats and magpies , but they wont come down when people are their, they will try to hide the chick but as with all animals and people they dont like doing as they are told and do tend to venture out into the world, but do try and hide again in nearbye cover at signs of danger...

if you watch a baby bird that has feathers you will see that every now and again it will make calls out to the parents to let them know where it is so they can feed it

however if a bird is injured it is usually best to either leave it be for nature to take course it will either heal or it will die unfortunately not a lot can be done but with more serious injury like broken bones as you described above the bird can be took to a wildlife rehabilitation center, their are quite a few of them around and they will do all they can to help and rear the bird...

hand rearing is not as simple as what it sounds and even after 20 years of doing it we all still have accidents or make mistakes... some ending in fatality, some are to weak to make it through the fight and stress of bieng somewhere strange....
if you feed a baby bird the wrogn way it can kill it in seconds or even linger a death on with illness for days by causing pneumonia or impaction.....
this is why it is always important to leave the job to somebody who knows how to do it properly and is trained in that specific area.. as much as we try and help by trying to feed them often this can end up with death


as mentioned above some will have to be tube fed and others dont have to be, it differs on age and species of bird,
if you cant get a baby bird to gape (open its beak wide and beg) the chances are that by trying to force it eat will kill it as they will not have the swallowing reflex that shuts off the tube to the lung ... if the bird gapes well it is possible to feed them either with worms or by soaked dogmeat... the worms fed from hand the dogmeat fed by tweezer or spoon...or even a syringe ..

a parent will reject a baby bird that is ill or very very weak, this can happen at a young age as soon after birth or it could be noticed late on, either way they will stop feeding the bird and/or throw it from the nest and let nature take its course, as the bird doesnt know what medication it it cant help and some or most of the illnesses can be very life threatening, contagious or cause severe deformitys that would make it unsuitable for adulthood..

i dont know if this confused anybody as ive lost track of what i wrote lol but if you want me to try explain further on any part let me know and i will do

katie

bushg

mrs, thank you for your help, next time I will know how to better handle the situation, I will also be sharing this with my neighbor, she loves animal and birds also, we are partners is saving the helpless creatures in our neighborhood.

mrssittingduck

your welcome

and thanks for sharing the info with others, for every bit of info passed on it does some good out their as people will then pass the info on to others if they hear of somebody in the same prediciment
as for the helpless creatures of the neighbourhood i know what you mean , i get every baby bird, chick, fledgling , cast away pet birds, birds who cant be looked after anymore ..sent to me that everybody around here finds :lol: with the fledglings i make sure they go back exactly where they are found and wait it out for a reunion with the parent , but all the others have to be helped, sometimes i cant personally deal with them due to what im doing at the time so most of them go to the rehab center for wildlife but i do sort some of them myself, with having 4 kids a dog and my own birds to look after time can get short sometimes so have to do the responsible thing and pass them on to somebody who can give the animal the time it needs.

i also get brought every stray dog in the estate needless to say i cant look after them due to my dog not taking to adult dogs well so they have to be sent on to the warden (never the rspca) the ones with name tags that are injured i clean up and ring the owners up or find the addy..

so waifs and strays are definite in my house lol

i just released a baby collered dove back into the wide world after been rescued from a group of youths kicking it across the floor, spent 4 days with me recouperating its injurys and is now back with the parents the parents were atacking the aviary trying to get into her to feed her felt good to watch her go back where she belonged

if you need any more help on a bird subject let me know and i can do my best to help you,
i dont have all the answers but i have learnt a fair bit in 20 years, cant promise a miracle but can promise that i will always do my best to help where it comes to birds..

other animals im not much good at ! but birds i can do

katie