Wild bird rescue takes training and know how.
In most cases you should probably do nothing yourself to render first aid to the bird in need.
Baby birds especially require specialized care that only their parents or trained wildlife personnel are equipped to perform.
baby birds are fed regurgitated food by their parents, who know what
they should be fed at different stages of their growth.
adult birds such as Mourning Doves feed their babies a “crop milk” or
“pigeon milk” in the first few days of their baby’s life.
This would be impossible for an untrained person to know how to compensate for.
Intervening in the wrong way may cause more harm than good.
Also, be aware that in many states and provinces in North America it is illegal to handle or take a wild bird into your home to care for it.
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Young birds that are found, often do not look capable of surviving on their own.
This of course is alarming to see, and we immediately want to save it.
But before you do anything, keep a distance so you can observe the youngster to really get a picture of what is happening.
If it has no feathers at all, cannot stand up and is obviously still in need of being in its nest, try to find its home.
If you do find it, return it to its nest or cavity home, whether a man-made one or natural cavity and let the parents take over.
The scent you may have left on the bird will not keep the parent bird from continuing to care for their young, as most birds have a poor sense of smell.
Your job is well done and finished.
You can feel good that you have saved a valuable bird life!
But if the little bird is covered in a combination of new feathers with lots of down still visible, the young bird has probably just made one of its first attempts at leaving home.
Wait to see if the parents are near by before approaching the young bird, regardless of how much squawking and distress it seems to be in.
If you are too close, then the parents may not want to approach their young one for fear of drawing attention to it or being hurt themselves.
Many bird species continue to feed their young for a while after they leave the nest.
It is the next step in their becoming an adult bird.
It is always better to let nature take care of the situation.
Contact a wildlife rescue centre before intervening if you cannot leave the situation alone.
This is also a very distressing situation for us.
Seeing an injured bird in your yard or while on a walk can be a very difficult experience to accept.
Many times, we want to intervene right away.
But approaching the bird will only cause it to be afraid and it will try to flee, possibly creating more injury and stress.
When birds have been hurt they will often seek out one of their sources of food to stay close to, so they can feed when the area is clear of other birds.
Often this will be our backyard feeding area.
If you are quite sure the bird will not survive without intervention, then call a wildlife rescue service to ask for advice.
This is especially important if the bird is a raptor.
You could put yourself at great harm by incorrectly approaching an adult raptor who is injured.
Sometimes the best help you can give is to keep an eye on the injured animal from afar until the experts can arrive.
The best you can do in all the above situations is give the bird a wide birth and keep an eye out for predators to act as their protector.
And to reiterate a very important truth, that in many states and provinces in North America it is illegal to handle or take a wild bird into your home to care for it.
Although there are two exceptions to this law in most areas, House Sparrows and Starlings, as they are invasive species and cause much harm to our native wild birds.
If you finally conclude that the bird will not survive without intervention, then call a wildlife rehabilitator or wild bird rescue centre in your area to ask for guidance.
Or contact your state agency.
Have you had the experience of finding an injured bird or a baby out of the nest? Please tell us what you did, if anything, and what the outcome was if you know.
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