Baby Birds at WildCare
Mother's Day is this Sunday, and in WildCare's Birdroom our staff and volunteers have many reasons to appreciate the work that mother (and father!) songbirds do to raise their young.
Our orphaned baby birds need to be fed every 30 - 45 minutes from dawn to dusk, which feels like a lot, but imagine if we had to go out and catch the insects we feed these hungry patients! Wildlife moms really are amazing!
Meet some of the newly-arrived baby birds in WildCare's Birdroom in the videos below. Turn up the volume to appreciate the wonderful cacophony that fills the Birdroom this time of year!
Celebrate the wonderful moms in your life with a donation in Mom's honor for Mother's Day! Each gift will help us care for the hungry baby birds in the video below, and all of the baby animals in our care this spring.
NOTE: Your honoree will receive a card in the mail, but it will not arrive before Mother's Day on May 14. Please include your honoree's full name and mailing address on the donation form.
These baby House Finches hatched in a nest in a hanging plant that blew down in a recent storm. Unfortunately, the nest shattered when it fell, and the hook that had held the plant fell down too.
These birds' rescuers placed them in a fake nest in a nearby plant, but the parent birds kept going back to where the fallen plant had hung, and they didn't find the new nest with their babies. This happens frequently, so we always ask people who find fallen nests to call our Living with Wildlife Hotline 415-456-7283 for advice before attempting to renest baby birds. Parent birds will absolutely continue feeding their young, but the new nest needs to be almost exactly where the old one was located, and there are often other considerations as well.
As the sun went down, the homeowners knew these baby birds would get too cold without their parents to keep them warm. They brought the tiny finches to WildCare.
Remember that any nestling bird who is naked or down-covered cannot regulate his own body temperature. A bird this age found on the ground will always need immediate care at WildCare (or your closest wildlife care center).
This fledgling crow was sitting on the front step of a Novato home. The homeowners saw him, but they also saw and heard other crows flying and calling overhead, so they assumed this youngster was being cared for.
After several hours, however, when the crow hadn't moved, they recognized that something was wrong. They called Marin Humane to bring the bird to WildCare.
On intake he was very dehydrated, and he had some bruising on his abdomen. Our team also diagnosed that he had a respiratory infection and placed him on a course of antibiotics. Clearly this young bird needed medical care. He has a healthy appetite, however, so his prognosis is good!
He will grow up in care with other orphaned crows at WildCare, and we'll release him back to the wild once he's old enough.
These baby starlings lost their home to tree trimming... their entire nest tree was cut down.
Fortunately, the homeowners heard the fallen babies calling from the remains of the nest, and they knew to bring them to WildCare.
Remember to Respect the Nest, and delay non-emergency tree trimming until after wildlife "baby season," which runs through September and even into October in the San Francisco Bay Area. Questions about nests in your trees and yard? Call WildCare's Living with Wildlife Hotline 415-456-7283!
We feed these baby starlings every 45 minutes from dawn until dusk when they're this age. As they get older, they'll learn to self-feed, perch and fly, and ultimately we will release them back to where they came from.
Note that starlings are a non-native species that can out-compete our native songbirds, so WildCare takes great care to only release starlings, and other non-native animals, back to the exact territory they came from. This prevents additional incursions into the territories of native wildlife.
Donate in Honor of Mom to Help Us Feed Our Baby Birds!
Celebrate the wonderful moms in YOUR life! Make a donation to WildCare in Mom's honor, and we'll mail her a card letting her know of your gift. NOTE: Cards will not arrive before Mother's Day on May 14.