Adventures of Raising Baby Birdie!

As I create this birdie blog and search through all the pictures we took almost daily, I am amazed how FAST baby sparrows grow and develop!

Not long after we rescued Birdie from imminent death, Birdie began to grow and thrive! Once baby learned how to eat from us with the tweezers mimicking a real bird beak, the daily developmental changes were downright astounding!! Just two days after falling from the nest, Birdie's eyes opened!

Each morning we would wake up to feed Birdie, and were always surprised with the striking physical changes, new strength and developing feathers pushing outwards from the stalks. Birdie seemed to recognize us individually and get really excited to see us. I annoyed my family by my high pitched repetitious "birdie, birdie, birdie, birdie" response calls to Birdie's chirps to me! Birdie learned to respond to my voice, and would answer me from various areas of the house! (video of this later in the blog!)

Birdie needed to be fed as often as possible (every 20-40 minutes, sun up to sun down), and would let whomever was home know it was time for feeding, by chirping very loudly! It was a challenge in the beginning as Birdie's neck was so limp and wobbly. Each day, we would wake up wondering if we would be greeted with happy chirps... or sad quietness... but Birdie thrived and survived, beating all the odds!

Here Birdie's little stalk feathers are coming in fast!

Within just days, Birdie's eyes open more

and hisher feathers begin to fill in even more

Birdie's feathers are coming in, in various colors

note the little white/beige accents underneath

Even though Birdie's feathers are coming in great

hisher disabled neck is still twisted and floppy. We just don't know if

heshe was born this way, or was terribly injured in the fall from the nest

Here baby Birdie sits on human "daddy-bird's" chest
for warmth and closeness to a living being.

Sadly Birdie doesn't get to feel the constant movements

of hisher real bird parents and nestmates, but we tried to

imitate real bird contact for himher as often as possible

Here you can see Birdie's deformed neck

Birdie's fluttering hisher wings

and stretching out!!!

At the end of just one week, Birdie had transformed from a weak helpless injured baby, to a little baby bird that appeared to have turned the survival corner and was going to make it!!! Baby was growing and developing so fast, we had to move the original little plastic nest container into a larger pet carrier I had just happened to save from the kid's previous varieties of little pets such as mice, rats, tiny green snakes, etc

I was still furiously reading online about raising wild abandoned baby sparrows and found so many interesting websites. I even found a site describing how to make a tiny neck support brace for baby birds with neck deformities or injuries. We still weren't sure the root of Birdie's neck issue, so I continued to read about everything sparrow related, but let nature take nature's course.

Also at this time, we questioned ourselves, as well as others inquiring, if we were planning to eventually set Birdie free... again back to online research and the wonderful bird rescue websites discussing "Imprinting" of wild creatures on their human rescuers...

And while reading... look what was mentioned regarding a sparrow's growth, development and LONGEVITY!

"Sparrow eggs hatch in 11 days. The baby birds fledge when only 14 days old and are on the ground for a day or two when first leaving the nest. The young are independent 7-10 days after leaving the nest. They also have a relatively long life span (the record for a wild sparrow is 23 years ), although their typical lifespan in the wild is much shorter. In captivity, they have a life expectancy of 12 to 14 years. We know of one pet who lived to be 15 years of age."

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!