Although good samaritans provide admirable examples of how to treat fellow human beings in need, most "helpless" wild animals that we contact in the Piedmont are better off left alone. This statement is especially true at this time of year as baby birds leap from nests and newly-weaned rabbits foray for first nibbles on succulent spring grass.

I encourage my Northwestern biology students to capture harmless wild organisms like turtles and blacksnakes and beetles so they can bring them to school to share with my classes. (In fact, my classroom/lab turns into a real menagerie each year; this is much to the satisfaction of my students and me, but it brings constant chagrin to the janitorial staff!) We maintain these animals indoors and eventually return them to the wild, having gleaned as much as we can from observing their behavior in captivity.

I do draw the line, however, by giving students an early spring warning against collecting baby birds or mammals. On first sight, a baby bird on the ground throws otherwise hardened cynics into fits of compassion, and their overriding urge is to rescue the helpless creature from a cruel environment. This is nearly always exactly the wrong thing to do.

After a little reflection, most people realize that flightless baby birds have been falling out of nests a few days too soon for millions of years. Likewise, momma birds and poppa birds have been watching those babies hit the deck. After investing 15 days to incubate eggs and another 15 to brood and feed newly-hatched chicks, songbirds are not likely to abandon their offspring just because they get a little fidgety and bail out early.

Baby birds on the ground are not as helpless as they appear. Many of them are well camouflaged--a spot-breasted juvenile American Robin is not nearly as conspicuous as its red-breasted father--and they innately freeze when apparent danger comes into view. (Most baby birds probably wouldn't recognize danger unless it hit them over the head, but they do exhibit a freezing response when they hear certain alarm calls from adults.)

Once a baby bird leaves the nest, one or both parents follow it pretty closely, often from obscure perches where the adults aren't so obvious. If you patiently watch a baby bird on the ground, however, you'll usually see a parent descend from some hidden branch with a sumptuous morsel of grubworm or potato bug. This catering service will continue all day and sometimes for several days until the flightless fledgling develops aerial skills of its own.

The parents don't just feed the young bird, however--as you may find out the hard way if you attempt to pick it up from the ground. Larger songbirds, especially Northern Mockingbirds, American Robins, and Blue Jays, can raise sizeable lumps on a human noggin when they divebomb the baby bird molester's skull. Even mighty-mites like the Tufted Titmouse swoop fearlessly against cats, dogs, squirrels, and humans when young birds are threatened.

So what does one do when a flightless baby bird hops across the lawn? Again, the appropriate response is to leave it alone. Of course, if the local cat is about to make a meal of the youngster, it might be appropriate to interfere and lock the cat indoors for the remainder of the breeding season. This advice might well offend cat lovers, but we must remember that cats are NOT natural predators of Piedmont birds, and most local bird species just haven't developed very good defenses against them.

After getting between the cat and its intended prey, place the young bird at least six feet off the ground in some dense shrubbery. There it can perch tightly on a twig while awaiting food delivery from its parent. DON'T worry about leaving human scent on the baby so that the parents won't accept it; very few bird species have any sense of smell.

The one time you might legitimately "adopt" a baby bird is when you know its parents have been killed intentionally by a cat or accidentally in some other way. If you're willing to bring a genuine orphan into your house, remember that baby birds are fed several times an hour by their natural parents. Adoptive parents should be willing to provide the same feeding schedule. Just in case you have a legitimate reason for feeding a baby bird, I'm including the following diets, but I strongly discourage taking young from the wild unless you are absolutely positive they cannot survive otherwise.

Lastly, it is important to remember that state and federal permits are required to keep wild birds of any kind. This man-made law seems harsh, but it does keep humans from interfering too much with the natural law that almost all young birds have to die. If they didn't, we'd be knee-deep in robins in a very few years.

1/2 cup of medicated turkey starter feed
1 drop of liquid vitamin supplement for human babies
1 25-milligram tablet of vitamin B1 (crushed)

Mix the ingredients to a paste that will stick to a toothpick. At least every 15 minutes place a food lump well back in the bird's throat to stimulate the swallowing reflex. Continue until the bird refuses food. (If medicated turkey starter feed is not available through local feed stores, a temporary infant diet may be made using 1/4 cup Gaines Meal dried dog food soaked in lukewarm water for about 10 minutes; add two vitamin drops instead of one. In either case, a worm or two can be chopped up into the mix.) Do NOT feed milk products to birds of any age, and BE SURE TO KEEP AN UNFEATHERED BIRD WARM AT ALL TIMES.

1/4 cup of Gaines Meal dry dog food (soak as for Infant Diet)
Sprinkling of vitamin-mineral supplement (available from pet shops)
1 teaspoon of finely chopped apple, grape, or banana
1 teaspoon of soaked and finely chopped dark raisins

Wild bird seed and shelled sunflower seeds can be added to this mixture for adults that normally eat seeds; premium-quality pre-moistened dog foods might also be tried. Feed feathered young as often as they will eat. For injured adults, always have food and water available so that they can eat and drink when they wish. NEVER keep an uninjured wild adult bird in captivity.

Back to Piedmont Naturalist Volume 1 (1986)