# not emergency...help with baby cardinal and cowbird



## geckogirly (May 19, 2010)

I'll try to make the back story as brief as possible...

Ok, so my BF decided to rescue two baby birds last week. He found them outside of one of the apts he went to for his work. A nest had been blown out of a tree (had just stormed). He tried to put the nest back up in the tree (with the birds in it), and a squirrel comes bounding down at them...attacking the nest (guess it was 'his' territory).

Anyway, to make a long story short, he took the birds home. He bought some baby bird food from the petstore and fed them for several days. They were doing well. Problem was, he was going out of town over the weekend, so guess who got stuck with the little things?

Anyway, I have them now, and they are growing VERY quickly. It's almost time for them to be eating solid food, but how do I teach them to hunt/search it out? They can flutter across the livingroom now, so I know they need to be flying the coop soon, but w/out their parents I can't just toss them out into the big bad world.

Any of you have luck with releasing wild birds that you raised? Advise would be appreciated. The only thing the wildlife rehabilitators told the BF was to put them back in the tree. And, had this happened at the BF's residence, that may have eventually been possible (wait out the squirrel), but the situation as it was, the birds came home with him.

The chirping is driving me crazy at this point. I have them in a bird cage and they are big enough to perch now. I have been keeping them in a room w/out the cat or dog so that they don't think that in the wild cats and dogs are friends. I have also been trying to handle them as little as possible so that they don't get too accustom to 'humans'.



Side note...I am in the process of building an outdoor pen for my turtles (completely enclosed). I was thinking about putting a bird feeder right next to the enclosure and keeping the babies inside the enclosure for awhile (size is 6x12x6). The thought was that maybe they'd learn from the birds that came to the feeder. Thoughts?

Thanks...and sorry for a long post! I have committed to finish raising these guys, so I don't need to find someone to take them, just need advise on getting them ready to be on their own, and on their eventual release.

-Andrea


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## Msfreebird (Sep 23, 2007)

geckogirly said:


> I'll try to make the back story as brief as possible...
> 
> Ok, so my BF decided to rescue two baby birds last week. He found them outside of one of the apts he went to for his work. A nest had been blown out of a tree (had just stormed). He tried to put the nest back up in the tree (with the birds in it), and a squirrel comes bounding down at them...attacking the nest (guess it was 'his' territory).
> 
> ...


I think that would be your best bet. That would be called a "soft release". Keep them in the pen for a couple weeks until their eating good on their own and have good flight. Then if you can open a spot at the top of the pen for them to get out - and get back into if they want food for awhile. Good idea to let them see other birds eating close by - they will learn from that.
I did this with 3 baby Yellow Belly Sapsuckers that were in a cavity of a pine tree that fell in a storm. I put the broken tree trunk in my empty flight cage and only went in to feed them. Once I saw them pecking around for food on their own and flying, I opened the door to the flight cage (and left it open) so they could go out on their own when ready. Once they came out, all three came back and chased me around the yard to be fed for 3 days, then the 2 females left. The male came back every day for another week to be hand fed, then he left also.
This is the male that came back for a week. When I would go out on my deck he would fly in, out of nowhere to be fed, sit for awhile with me, then take off again


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## yopigeonguy (Oct 22, 2009)

Very cute story! Msfreebird!

Hope it works out for you GeckoGirly!


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