The Fledgling Poe
Daiana Parthemore
Someone gave me this healthy fledgling crow, but I don't know where it came from, so I can't return it to its family. Should I try to get the local crows to adopt it or should I just raise it myself?
Although I fully understand and sympathize with the desire torescue baby wildlife, it probably is wisest to leave all wildanimals alone. I am completely convinced that more young birdsare unnecessarily ripped away from their parents andtortured/killed by well meaning people than are ever rescued. Ibelieve that more young animals would survive if people wouldjust leave them alone.
Is this a nestling or a fledgling? Do you know the difference?If not, read on and try to figure it out. A nestlingcould use the help; a fledgling needs to be left alone.
Why do you think it is abandoned? Do you see a deadparent nearby? Most animal parents leave their young forlong periods of time while they forage for food. Unless you knowfor a fact that the parents are dead, assume they are nearbywatching worriedly.
If an animal is in immediate harm's way, it should be movedinto a safer area. By this I mean a bird in the middle of thestreet, or on the ground in the middle of a yard with a cat init, or something similar. A bird on the ground can be put up in abush or low tree that would keep it out of the reach of dogs orchildren. Ideally the cover location would have dense foliagethat would conceal the bird and would be connected to more shrubsand trees that the bird could climb to.
One of the most frequent problems with "rescuing"wildlife is that the youngsters are doing fine and do notneed help. Instead of being orphaned, they are beingwatched attentively by concerned parents, who often are makingquite a ruckus while their babies are kidnapped.
Many people seem to expect birds to be able to fly on theirown when they leave the nest. Most cannot, but rather leave thenest a week to 10 days before they can fly. People who see themassume that they have fallen from their nest. Here is thereality: birds just don't fall from their nests! Theparents usually build nice sturdy nests. Only incrediblyinfrequently will the nest be disturbed enough that a nestlingwill fall out. In some species, however, and crows are one ofthese species, nestling birds may be THROWN out of the nest. Thatis, it is in the best interests of the parent birds to get rid ofsome of their own offspring, and they accomplish this by tossinga couple of kids. (Life is not pretty!) But, such things happenonly relatively infrequently! (In these cases putting the youngback in the nest will probably result in them getting tossedagain. Either that, or that one will drag the rest of the nestinto starvation with it.)
For most songbirds, there is a good rule of thumb: the rule ofthe thumb! By that I mean, can the bird sit up on your thumb (orfinger) on its own? If it can, then it is a FLEDGLING and shouldbe left alone! Nestling songbirds cannot balance on their own orgrip a perch until right at fledging. If the bird can balance ok,then it is SUPPOSED to be out of the nest. It may not look likeit, but it is. It will have some feathers over much (but not all)of its body, and the wing and sometimes the head feathers will besticking out of little tubes (the feather sheathes). It mightstill have tufts of down on its head or on other parts of thebody.
So, if it seems ok, not injured, just unable to fly, and itcan perch on its own, you should PUT IT BACK WHERE YOU FOUND IT.Even if the parents weren't right there yelling at you, chancesare that they know where the baby was and were doing all theycould to take care of it. Don't worry about them abandoning itbecause you touched it; birds don't do that. (They might,however, abandon nests if you get too close, especially if theyhave eggs and not nestlings.) Just get it back to where they canfind it and where it will be safe. Don't put it in an enclosedarea that the parents will be afraid to go into. Get it somewhereit can eventually move off on its own.
They come out for a good reason, namely that the nest is avery dangerous place to be. People tend to think of birds' nestsas little homes that they return to each night, where it is cozyand warm. In fact for most birds, nests are a tragedy waiting tohappen, and they leave them absolutely as quickly as possible.Think about it this way. Imagine that you are a small bird. Youhave lots of enemies that would like to eat you and youroffspring (and eggs). What is your best course of action, go backto the same spot every night, or sleep hidden in different spotsevery night? What about your babies? Do you keep them together inone spot, or do you spread them out and move them around as soonas you can? Imagine that you have a nest hidden in a bush, andthere is a raccoon that is looking for it. If that raccoon checksone bush every day, soon or later he is going to find your nest.Therefore, the sooner you can get those kids out of there, thebetter. Then you can spread them out and move them around to adifferent spot every night. Think about all those eggs and thatone basket. It makes even more sense for birds to avoid thatsituation than people.
This is not just an abstract idea, either. During mydissertation work I studied the behavior of fledgling FloridaScrub-Jays, and I noticed that the first ten days out of the nest(they fledge on average at 18 days old) were by far the mostdangerous. It seemed to me that the survival of the young mightincrease if they stayed in the nest until they could fly (at day28). But, when I calculated the numbers, I found out differently.For reasons stated above in the raccoon example, a nest has adecreasing chance of survival as the nestling period progresses.I took the data on that risk for scrub-jay nests, and thencompared it with data on fledgling survival. What I found wasthat if the jays stayed in their nests for another ten days theywould actually gain ZERO advantage over coming out at the normaltime. And after that time being outside the nest is significantlysafer than staying in it. Yes, there are cats, raccoons, andhawks out there that would love to snatch up a nearly helplessbaby bird, but if those baby birds can move around they will havea better chance than if they sit still.
What makes you think it is injured? Is it bloody? Or is itjust that it cannot fly? It is difficult to realize that babycrows are in fact babies. When a young crow leaves the nest itwill be somewhere around 80 to 100% adult body weight, have legsthat will never grow any further, and wings that are nearly fullsize. This is a large bird, to be sure, up to 300 to 450 g inweight. But they still cannot fly! I have had a number offledgling crows picked up off the ground because the peoplethought they were injured. When I found them perfectly healthyand told the people that they couldn't fly because they werestill just babies, the inevitable response was "But it's soBIG."
If it really is injured, if one wing looks substantiallydroopier than the other, if it has blood on its body, or itcannot grip with one foot, then findprofessional assistance. Do not try to fix it onyour own. Call a veterinarian in your area, or get the bird to alicensed wildlife rehabilitator. Caring for wild animals isdifficult, and requires specialized knowledge. If you do not knowof a wildlife rehab person in your area, try looking for one at the closest person and see if they will take your bird, orknows someone who will.
Close contact with wild animals can be a changing point insomeone's life, making a nature lover out of an indifferentcynic. Unfortunately, it can change the animal's life too, andusually not for the better. In the case of crows several factorsare involved. The biggest danger to a baby crow is ignorance onthe part of the caregiver. Do you know how to care for a babybird? How have you learned this information? It is NOT all commonsense. If you think it is, you will probably either kill ortorture the babies in your care without knowing it.
First of all, raising a baby bird is a LOT OF WORK! Baby birdsneed to be fed every 10-20 minutes or so, every day for theirentire period of dependence. (Crows are dependent for about 2.5months.) That's dawn to dusk, every day. You can't just leavethem home with food in the cage until you get home from work.They can't feed themselves, but must have it pushed down theirthroats. At least twice an hour, every daylight hour, for severalweeks. This is a big commitment! That is one of the reasons thatrehabilitators hate to see healthy fledglings come in the door.
Diet and Nutrition. One of the most commonproblems is ignorance of proper diets. You are undoubtedly awarethat not all birds eat the same things. Some, like cardinals eatprimarily seeds, while others like warblers eat almostexclusively insects. So too are nestling diets somewhatspecialized. Most baby songbirds are fed mostly insects and otheranimal foods, along with some plant foods. Some species, such asherons and seabirds have very specialized diets. Just as mancannot live by bread alone, so too do young birds have problemswith simplified or inadequate diets. No bird can live on a dietof bread and milk! (Never feed dairy products to birds. Birds areall lactose intolerant (can't digest milk sugar), and if fed toomuch they will get diarrhea.) Nor, can they live on hamburgeralone. If inadequate diets are given baby birds they may die, orgrow up with health problems.
Stress (read "torture"). Do youknow what the mental state of that animal is? Do you know when itis scared? Are you comforting it or stressing it? (Hint: no wildanimal wants to be petted). This is one of the biggest argumentsfor why it is legal to shoot crows but illegal to keep them aspets. It is legal to give them a quick and clean death, butillegal to torture them to death.
Is that bird begging or yelling at you? Crowsyounger than 26 days old will beg at anything that moves. If youpick up a youngster before that age it will imprint on you andbeg incessantly. Crows older than this age become wary and onlybeg at those things recognized as "parents." If you geta fledgling, it will gape at you and vocalize, but it is nothungry (necessarily), and it is not happy to see you. It actuallyit is frightened and is yelling at you to keep away. The goodpart of this is that you can still stuff food down its throat.The bad part is, of course, that you are stressing the bird. Howdo you tell the difference? Begging crows will try to get closer.They will stand up and stretch their necks toward you. Scaredcrows will lean away and might huddle against the wall of theirbox or cage. If a crow in a box has its head tucked between itswings or has its feet closest to you, it is scared. If it wantsyou to feed it, the face will be closest.
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