Bird Baby..Help!

[BeeFernandez22]

Okay all.. I was brought a baby bird this morning and I'm not quite sure what it is, or what age. (I'm not too keen on my bird care, as I don't get them all that often..) Can anyone tell me what type of baby I'm dealing with here? I'm in Missouri if that is any help...
141325

[Pierre]

It kind of looks like a robin to me. ? All baby songbird care is basically the same tho--both seed or insect eaters as adults eat insects as babies.

Cutie!

[BeeFernandez22]

It seems very small to be a Robin to me, but as I said before, I'm not too keen on birds.

[Pierre]

Hard to tell size sorry. Perhaps a house sparrow then. Looks a bit like that too. The reddish brown in the feathers. :)

[Baxied]

I'm thinking wren. I just had a wren family raise their babies in a hanging cube in my unoccupied release cage on the deck.:)

[Pierre]

You're right, he does look like a baby wren. Wrens are adorable. :Love_Icon

[BeeFernandez22]

Just looked up pics of a baby wren and I think that is what it is! Looks very similar. Any age estimates??

[Pierre]

Maybe 2 weeks old or so? I'm not sure how long from birth to fledging, but he is definitely a fledgling :Love_Icon [i.e. not a nestling that shouldn't be out of the nest]. Should be able to make it fine at this point [unless injured or something].

[Pierre]

Some more Carolina wren info:

The young are fed butterfly and moth larvae, crickets, grasshoppers and beetles by both parents.

The chicks leave the nest 12 to 14 days after hatching.

After much coaxing from parents (for instance, adults will decrease food deliveries) the young depart the nest by hopping and flying erratically. The parents continues to visit the young, who remain together, for feeding purposes for weeks after they depart.

The young become independent about 4 weeks after fledging.

[BeeFernandez22]

Maybe 2 weeks old or so? I'm not sure how long from birth to fledging, but he is definitely a fledgling :Love_Icon [i.e. not a nestling that shouldn't be out of the nest]. Should be able to make it fine at this point [unless injured or something].

He is not injured as far as I can see but he cannot fly. I was assuming that meant I could not let him go?

Edit- Mom was eaten by a dog according to the people who brought the baby to me so re-uniting is impossible

[Pierre]

If you have an area you can keep him in [screened porch?] where you can feed him ~ 8 times per day [sun up to sun down] that is large enough for him to learn how to hop, flap, and then fly---that would be ideal. Since he no longer has his parents around, he cannot be released yet. He doesn't know how to find food or to fly. You can take him outside into bushes too during the day and watch him, and feed him there, but he'll die without you these next few weeks. You can put him in a bird cage at night.

If someone else knows more, please post. :)

[BeeFernandez22]

Well I suppose I have a new little baby on my hands then! Guess that means it's time for a name! Open to suggestions! :D

[Fireweed]

Hey, Bee! Thanks for saving the little one! She looks like a sparrow or wren, to me. :dono

I'll tell you what I did when I raised a day old sparrow in case you get any ideas from it. (I'm no expert...I've just raised one bird and helped many injured and sick ones.)

I kept her in a homemade nest in a bird cage during night and colder days. When she was about the age yours is now, she was outside in a mosquito screen tent during the day--the kind of tent that doesn't have a floor--and I put gravel and rocks all around the base outside so nothing could get in and she couldn't get out. I took the cage and nest out there, too, so she could nap in it during the day. But I took her and cage/nest in at night. I kept a heating pad under half her cage/nest no matter if she was inside or out. I 'planted' different kinds of trees in the tent, too, so she could learn to hop up on branches and eventually fly from tree to tree.

I fed her crushed bugs and ant eggs and a little dog food until she was old enough to eat bugs live/uncrushed and her seeds (she was a 'mostly' seed eating sparrow). I used a very soft and small paint brush to put the food into her mouth until she would eat on her own.
As soon as she was in fledgling stage I started putting dead mosquitos on her bill and tricked her into opening her mouth so she could taste them. When she learned to like the dead mosquitos, I started putting live mosquitos (slightly injured--ugh) right near her bill so she would grab them up. Once she got the hang of that, I'd put her on my finger and move her around the tent so she could grab the mosquitos/flies that were resting on the tent screen herself. By this time she was also eating beetles and other bugs on the ground in the no-floor tent, as well as her mix of seeds that I would scatter all over the ground in there so she'd have to search and scratch for them. She always had a bit of soft dog food in her cage, too.

Once she started showing that she could flap and fly a leetle, I would let her sit on my finger and lift her off the ground a bit and then sort of gently toss her so she had to flap to the ground. As she got better and better at flapping to the ground, the toss happened from higher up. Eventually I was tossing her from tree to tree in the tent, and soon she was flying all over the tent on her own. (They have to learn how to fly UP as well as DOWN, so when teaching with the toss, remember to toss both ways. :thumbsup)

Once she was eating (I saw her jump up half a foot to catch a HUGE flying *thing* out of the air--never in my life have I seen a sparrow do that!) and flying (she had no problems flying all around the tent) and sitting right up on the branches (very important--their legs must be strong and have good balance--yours is *not* sitting up and must be encouraged to gain more strentgh/balance so he can perch), I moved on to slowly keeping her outside in the tent longer and longer until she was sleeping out there overnight through all kinds of weather. Then when the day came to let her out of the tent, I followed her around like a parent-bird and made sure she was ok. She would always hop near me to make sure I was around but she liked to venture on her own, too. Plus she knew the sound of my voice, so if I ever called her, she came. :D I did this for about a week, giving her some food once in awhile and leaving the nest/cage out for her (which she used sometimes). She then found a group of young juncos that she started to hang around with. She still came back to sleep around the house at night but she started roaming farther away every day with this junco flock. Eventually, she left with the juncos after another month...but she came to our porch for two more summers after that. We could tell it was her because she came right up to us, came when we called, and slept sometimes in a weird spot in our greenhouse where she had slept when she had first been released from the tent. :D

Well, hope you can get something from that blabbing mess... If I can help in anyway, let me know. Pierre has made some excellent suggestions and Psychobird is really great with birds, so talk to her if you need more help, too. Good luck!

[BeeFernandez22]

Thank you so much for all the help, guys! Pierre and Fireweed- you both rock!!! I will be happy to keep this little one, (and Fireweed, you basically walked me step by step which I SOOOO appreciate) but I spoke to NaturesGift on the phone a bit ago and she said they typically do better with other birds so I am going to check around to see if any other rehabbers or centers have any around his/her size. (How can I tell gender by the way??) If not, the little one will stay in my care!

[NaturesGift]

Hold a credit card in front of the baby....that will tell u gender!

Holy smokes tomorrow I'm getting baby birds and baby bats...I iz sooo lucky


Good luck with the lil booger!!

[BeeFernandez22]

Well, I am absolutely devestated... The baby bird passed away this morning. I thought I was doing everything correctly. He was absolutley fine this morning- chirping and hungry. I fed him, he ate and then was hopping around like normal. I went to take a shower and when I got out, I didn't hear him chirping (and he's been very vocal so I thought this was odd) so I went to check on him and he seemed to be breathing very heavily. Opening and closing his mouth and stretching out his legs. There was nothing visible in his mouth so I know he wasn't choaking.. I offered water, which he refused. I picked him up and he let out a chirp (which I thought was a good sign because thats what he did yesterday when I picked him up to take a picture. He didn't care to be handled). Before I knew it, he was gone. I feel sooooo terrible that this sweet little guy was in my care and I failed him. Maybe rehabbing is not for me. I have been fortunate with my squirrels. but having something die in my care just makes me feel absolutly terrible. Can anyone see where I may have went wrong?

[psychobird]

I'm so sorry you lost the baby Carolina wren, I love raising those itty bitty's
I didn't have time to read te entire thread so I'm not sure what u were feeding him
The mention of water makes me thin that possibly he aspirated
I never give bb birds water they just aspirate to easily
I've done it with a syringe drop by drop and a little guy like that even a drop might be too much
I place a drop on the side of the beak and let it wick into his mouth, I wait for them to swallow before I give another drop
If they can't drink it on Thier own i don't usually syringe it, I hydrate with berries and SQ if severely dehydrated, then I water down the formula a bit
I would have set him up in a small reptarium in a warm room
Fed him the Fons diet about every hour
Left a dish of dusted mealworms for him and a small dish of water
I probably would have had a heating pad under half the cage and kept 3 sides covered for a few days until he was perching well and seemed stable
It's hard to say how he passed, birds are very tricky about hiding illness and injury
Possibly he was sick to begin with, I find it hard to believe a dog could catch a healthy adult wren, they are soooo fast like little mice
So either a the dog got a sibling of your little guy or they were all sick with something
People always forget that with songbird there are 2 parents so eve if one is killed the other parent will do double time to care for the babes
Even a clerking like your guy should have been pretty hard to catch
If you have to chase a baby all over the yard leave them be they are at mist a couple of days away from flying, almost all songbirds come out of the nest unable to fly well
They fly low and go branch to branch unt they build the stength and quardination to fly as good as mom and dad

[psychobird]

That's suppose to say flegling no clerking stupid spell check
Sorry for the typos hard to type all this on a phone. Hopefuy u get the gist of it