Oklahoma culture

Silent Sunday: Little Bird

3 Comments

Friday night, Mick was turning the sprinkler on in the front yard when he noticed a tiny bump on the lawn. Upon closer inspection, he saw that it was a small baby bird. He called me to the area and we watched it for a while...it was shaking, rocking back and forth, and was constantly holding its head up as if to get food from its parents. We waited for a while, but didn't see the parents. Pretty soon, ants began to crawl all over the baby bird. Occasionally it would open its mouth but the call was so weak we became concerned. So, we went inside and began to research "how to take care of a baby bird who has fallen from its nest."

After reading that we shouldn't do anything unless we assess it's in very bad shape, we found that putting it back into the nest was an okay thing to do. HOWEVER, if you can't reach the nest, putting it in a basket as close to the nest at you could reach was the next best thing. We looked up at the tree...the nest was in one of the most high branches. There was no way we could get up there. So, we did the basket thing.

 

The next morning, Mick went to check on the baby bird. He called me, reporting that it was energetic, animated, and was perched on the rim of the basket...AND its parents were tending to it. The next NIGHT, it was right back in the lawn again. Covered with ants. Mick put gloves on, picked it up, brushed off the ants, and moved it just a little ways to a spot without ants. This morning (Sunday), I went out to check on the baby. It was asleep in the grass, about 20 feet from it's location last night. I walked closer to check on it. "SQUAWK!" I looked overhead, and in the tree branches was a parent watching over it. A huge mockingbird, watching over its sleeping baby.
I left the little sleeping baby in its spot for the third day in a row. I noticed it's feathers were just a bit longer, its sides were lifting up and down with steady breathing, and it looked strong just sitting there in the grass. Shhhh...baby's sleeping, "Mama" is watching, and us? We're leaving it alone! Good luck little birdie!

Late Sunday Night note:  Sadly, the baby must have taken a turn for the worse, because when we returned from church, it had died.  I was really sad because I wondered if somehow our intervention had hurt its chances.  I can’t know the answer to that question, but right before I went to bed that night, Rylee came in and said that she had seen five different Tweets or posts about dead baby birds that day.  That piece of information made me wonder if the stress of the hot weather was a contributing factor.  I don’t know.  I do know that I’m sad our baby bird didn’t made it. ~ RDK

Comments

comments

3 thoughts on “Silent Sunday: Little Bird”

  1. That’s a baby blue jay. I had one about the same age and its parents parents had abandoned it. I found the bird all but dead, and successfully nursed it back to health for a couple of days. Sadly it died on the fourth day. Birds will boot their babies from the nest if they have an underlying health issue. I suspect that was the case with mine, and probably the case with yours as well. I was heartbroken that I couldn’t save the bird, but I did what I could. You did everything right. Even if you had tried to do more or brought it to a rehabilitator it probably would have succumbed to its health issues anyway. Animals can sense things that we can’t.

    2. Jen – I really appreciate your note. I actually wondered about the blue jay thing, but couldn’t see the parent well enough to be sure. Thanks for correcting that! It truly is a heartbreaking thing to watch little bird babies suffer and then die…I appreciate your comforting words, and wish them back to you for your particular incident. Take care,RDK

Comments are closed.