Nature Done Wright

Incorporating the Celery Farm and Screech Owl Companion blogs

June 4, 2015

My Latest Column: Helping Baby Birds

My latest "Bird Watcher" column for The Record and Herald News features the advice of veteran bird rehabilitator Giselle Smisko on what to do if you come across a baby bird out of its nest.

The link is here.

Coincidentally, a reader wrote in with a baby-bird question not covered in the column, which I relayed to Giselle.

Question: A robin nest in front of my house fell to the ground due to heavy rains. The nest had two baby robins in it. Can't find them on the ground anywhere.

Does anyone know if mom is able to "carry" them to another safe place?

We did not see this happen; just found the nest on ground. The babies were about 2 weeks old.

Giselle replied: The good news is that if the robin nestlings were truly close to 2 weeks old, they are old enough to be out of the nest. (Robins can leave the nest as early as 10 days.)

At that age they cannot fly well, but can perch and walk.

Parents will follow their calls and bring food to them until they are old enough in a few days to fly well. As long as they did not get drenched in the rain, they could be fine.

(Thanks, Giselle! Photo above, of a Killdeer Mom and her chicks, by Ron Shields.)