Adventures of Raising Baby Birdie!: Rescued! Birdie's Fall of Death to Life!

Raising Baby Birdie, the Sparrow ... How it all began!

Late on Monday night, May 20, 2013 I was letting our little rescue doggie Hanna outside for the last time before bed. Half asleep, I opened the front door and half watched as Hanna stepped out onto the front porch.

Within seconds, she stopped and hesitated, sniffing intently. She often does this, but this time was different, as she continued to linger and sniff intently. As I rubbed my sleepy eyes, my first thought was she was sniffing a beetle or spider... then I sadly recalled a week or two ago, she did the same thing, and when I stepped over to investigate what she was so fixated on, I saw a lifeless days old baby sparrow. My heart broke as I picked the little guy up and wished we had happened upon him much sooner... so we could have saved his life... like we did once before, over 30 years ago.

But that was then, and within several fast seconds, I realized Hanna was AGAIN sniffing a baby birdie that had fallen from the same darn nest... BUT THIS TIME, I QUICKLY REALIZED THIS LITTLE ONE WAS STILL ALIVE!! My heart pounded as I gently nudged Hanna away from the tiny pink blob on the bricks and scooped the tiny, featherless baby into the warmth of my hand. I was incredulous! How can this be happening again! Bad mommy and daddy bird! I looked up at the nest, and wondered if I could effectively and securely insert baby back into the nest, where heshe belonged! But I quickly came to my senses, realizing how late it was, and what a delicate procedure that would be, and also how devastated I would be if I did put baby back in the nest, only to come out in the morning and find himher (and perhaps others), fallen out again, and lifeless on the bricks.

And as I processed all of this at lightening speed, my heart leaped again, as I noticed ANOTHER fallen baby closer to the corner of the bricks. Bending over, with live baby gently and securely enclosed in my hand, I knelt down to the other baby... only to discover... tragically, this one had already, died...

(Above: Note the birdie-parent poop (white spots) and tiny (grey) spot towards the edge/corner of the bricks where little sibling was found dead :/ )

The nest looked so well put together, yet it appeared to have a gap where perhaps the babies were falling out.. or was that where mom and dad bird were coming in and out? Was there something wrong or defective with their clutch of eggs? Something wrong with their nest design? Were all the baby birdies in the nest doomed to this same tragic fate? Were they falling out or being pushed out for reason's unknown to us?

To the left of the porcupine-boot-brush, in the middle of the bricks, 7-8 feet below, was where LIVE baby Birdie landed!

My husband Jim was already asleep, so I enlisted my sleepy son Scott to help me create a little nest for fallen baby sparrow. Realistically, with 2 babies already found dead, the odds of this baby surviving the 7-8 foot fall from the nest seemed unlikely, but I knew we would do anything to give this little innocent life a chance at life! Scott and I quickly created a cozy nest out of a plastic food storage container and several layers of clean/dry Swifter cloths and kleenex tissues.

The night was cool, and little baby's body temperature was already cool, so I continued to hold baby for another 30 minutes, warming himher in my hand. As I warmed baby in my hand, I searched online for websites with recommendations on what to do in circumstances like this. It was late, and I had to get to bed, and realized there wasn't much I could do at 12:30 at night, except to get baby warm and secure. I would figure out the re-nesting or rehabbing procedure in the morning. Fortunately, Scott has a box turtle in a large, square terrarium, that has a low wattage ceramic heating lamp that worked out perfectly as a warmth source for the night.
I knew not what the morning would bring... I knew not what was going on with this sparrow family. But what I did know, was that we would do whatever it took to help this little one survive...
And because I had doubts of baby's survival, I couldn't bear to take a picture, as I didn't want the potentially sad story permanently recorded visually. So I don't have a picture of baby Birdie from the first night or next day.. as I was trying to prepare my heart, for what I thought would be the inevitable...

Tuesday morning came, and Jim awoke to a chirping baby sparrow on top the turtle enclosure! What a surprise that was to him, and of course me and Scott, since we knew the story and Jim did not! I calmed my heart and silently cautioned myself to protect my emotions... as I knew the chances of survival were not in baby Birdie's favor... but I quickly got to work investigating online how to care for an abandoned baby sparrow and found this wonderful resource:
Care and Rehabilitation of Injured and Orphaned Starlings and House Sparrows

For those of you reading this blog that don't know us, we have quite the variety of rescued animals already: dogs, cats, horses, turtle, tortoise, fish, and many others over the years... so taking care of a baby bird is just another loving challenge to us!

So after finding several great websites about what to do with an abandoned baby sparrow, now that baby survived the night, I resourced the fantastic one above- Babycare and Diet and this one: Raising-a-baby-sparrow , and quickly softened some of Hanna's dog kibble, found some tweezers and tiny spoon, and began trying to feed baby...
No doubt baby Birdie was very hungry, but also very confused as to these strange creatures bringing himher food! But nature's will to survive overtakes all and I managed to get Birdie to accept some nourishment. But in doing so, I realized something was drastically wrong with baby Birdies neck, as it was impossible for himher to support hisher little head in a natural upwards fashion... the poor little thing's head wobbled and rotated unnaturally and we began to think it's neck was broken :'/

But we quickly learned how to hold Birdie cuddled and supported by the soft cloths for feeding. Birdie also began to figure out how to eat from his new human family, and how to navigate the little spoon, or flat end or the tweezers. We kept alternating the feeding implements to find the best position and angle for feeding baby and on the second or third day of rescue and raising baby, Birdie opened hisher eyes and the story of "imprinting" on us began!!

Here's Birdie 2-3 days after heshe survived the "fall to life"

and opened hisher eyes, meeting hisher human family!