This post comes a bit late, but I found it too interesting not to share, seeing as it does not happen everyday... Probably for the best! This is a rather wordy post, so bear with me!
Last weekend, I found myself suddenly caretaker to a baby robin.
Last weekend, I found myself suddenly caretaker to a baby robin.
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| A real, teeny, baby robin. Like this. |
It started off on sweltering Saturday morning of June 30. I was looking out the dining room window, because my mom was pointing to the driveway across the street from us, at what she thought was a dove. We couldn't figure out what it was, so we dug out the handy-dandy binoculars. She couldn't see anything, but when I took them, I could see a small, moving little lump by the sidewalk. E la! It was a baby bird. Its mother had flown down, and huddled on top of it, to protect it from the sun. Unfortunately, people were out and walking about, and she kept getting startled and flying off.
I went out to get a closer look, and the poor thing was lying on its back, panting in the heat. Its eyes weren't open, and barely had any feathers.
Unsure of what else to do, I carefully moved it (it was so small!) to a spot under a shady tree, and hoped that its mama would come around looking for it. About an hour went by... I saw a robin hopping about, perhaps looking for it, but it didn't go anywhere near the spot where I put the baby.
Some may beg to differ and state that humans should leave the mama to take care of her baby, and leave it at that. But in 30+ degrees heat, what person would I be to let it bake in the sun?
Finally, after waiting a bit longer to see if the mother would ever find it (which it never did, as robins apparently have very little sense of smell to detect their young) I cracked and took it inside because it was so very hot, and probably starving. My mom prepared a shoe box lined with a towel, gave it some cat food with a bit of water via a saringe (it was hungry). Despite having likely been blown from its nest and onto the hot pavement and left in the sun, it seemed pretty ok, and slept peacefully.
We didn't want to get our hopes up for its survival past the first day (as often cases go), so we decided to make it as comfortable as possible anyway.
It needed to be fed every hour soft cat food and worm pieces, and kept warm so it wouldn't catch a chill. I wrapped a small water bottle filled with warm water in the towel next to him, and partially covered him up in the towel.
From the stuff I learned on caring for baby birds on the net, it is a lot of work. And just having this little guy (or girl?) was enough work alone. (The way it opened it's poor, wide little mouth, crying feed me! feed me!) Not only are you feeding and caring for it, but you're worrying about it, and whether you might be doing something wrong, like feeding it too much or too little. I thought about this, but mostly I felt that I was doing the right stuff.
Unsure of what else to do, I carefully moved it (it was so small!) to a spot under a shady tree, and hoped that its mama would come around looking for it. About an hour went by... I saw a robin hopping about, perhaps looking for it, but it didn't go anywhere near the spot where I put the baby.
Some may beg to differ and state that humans should leave the mama to take care of her baby, and leave it at that. But in 30+ degrees heat, what person would I be to let it bake in the sun?
Finally, after waiting a bit longer to see if the mother would ever find it (which it never did, as robins apparently have very little sense of smell to detect their young) I cracked and took it inside because it was so very hot, and probably starving. My mom prepared a shoe box lined with a towel, gave it some cat food with a bit of water via a saringe (it was hungry). Despite having likely been blown from its nest and onto the hot pavement and left in the sun, it seemed pretty ok, and slept peacefully.
We didn't want to get our hopes up for its survival past the first day (as often cases go), so we decided to make it as comfortable as possible anyway.
It needed to be fed every hour soft cat food and worm pieces, and kept warm so it wouldn't catch a chill. I wrapped a small water bottle filled with warm water in the towel next to him, and partially covered him up in the towel.
From the stuff I learned on caring for baby birds on the net, it is a lot of work. And just having this little guy (or girl?) was enough work alone. (The way it opened it's poor, wide little mouth, crying feed me! feed me!) Not only are you feeding and caring for it, but you're worrying about it, and whether you might be doing something wrong, like feeding it too much or too little. I thought about this, but mostly I felt that I was doing the right stuff.
Nighttime falls: it still slept, was still hungry, and it was doing poopers. That was a good sign, we thought. During the day, we kept it outdoors in the shade to continue giving it fresh air, but brought it for the night.
Again, it still seemed alright, but I still woke up in the middle of the night wondering whether its water bottle needed to be warmed up. I am that much of an animal lover, yes. Around 4.30, I decided to get up and check on it. If it had passed on, I would only be glad it died in the best hands possible.
But no!
I gave it a very little stroke just to see, and it stirred. Suddenly, it was awake, and it was hungry! Oh my. I could even hear it making some very faint cheeps that it hadn't been making yesterday. So, I gave it a bit of food, warmed up its bottle and it settled down again, and I went back to bed satisfied. Yes, I am that much of an animal lover.
To make this long story short, we had been looking all over town to see if we could find a place for this little bird to go, because we knew we wouldn't be able to care for it as it grew. We called some wild life sanctuaries, but all we got were recorded messages on what to do if we found babies, how to distinguish them, etc. Unfortunately, none were taking in any more baby birds.
On Canada Day Sunday, the bird continued to fare well in our care, and its eyes were opening up a bit. It was starting to remind me of Benjamin Button. No, seriously.
Then, by the late afternoon, a stroke of luck! My mom found on the web a rehabilitation centre somewhere up north. She got in touch with the woman who owned the place, and she said she would take the bird in. That very afternoon, as a matter of fact. Yay!
I would have taken the trip up north, but someone had to watch the dogs here at home. So, I had to leave it to my parents to take the two hour trip. I gave the bird a last bit of food, bundled it up, and watched it go with my parents. Le sigh.
As much work as it was, and would have been if we had kept it longer, I was sorry it see it go so soon. It was a cute little bird, and I would have liked to see it grow up a bit!
But all's well that ends well. Afterwards, the lady from the centre had said it was a very healthy bird, and we did a good job with it. (Worms weren't recommended though, because baby robins are fed regurgitated worms by their mothers)
Finito!
From here
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