The Center for the Protection and Study of Birds has received a large number of calls in recent days about birds that have fallen out of their nests.
It is rare for a bird to fall out of the nest prematurely, but it does happen. There are several reasons why this phenomenon occurs: excessive heat, jostling between birds for food - where some of them end up outside the nest, expecting too soon that they are ready to fly and it turns out to be the opposite, which is why their flight ends very quickly.
People usually find such birds on the ground and want to help and save them.
It is best to immediately raise the bird to a higher branch and take cover, leave it to the care and attention of the parents who are always nearby, keeping a watchful eye on you as a danger and on their baby, which they will continue to feed as soon as you take cover.
First and foremost - don't take baby wild birds and take them home.
If they are fledglings (birds that are already capable of flying on their own) and are not injured, return them to a nearby branch.
If they are fledglings (birds that haven't gotten their feathers yet) you can take them with you, they are too small and unable to fly.
First, pay attention to whether there is a nest in a nearby tree that could be theirs. If there is no nest, take it with you or call CZIP to accept it.
If you took a bird with you
If you have taken a bird with you to keep, you must know that it is very difficult to feed it and that you have to devote a lot of time to it. Baby birds are often fed - with very little food. If he gets cold suddenly, you have to heat the space where he is (a light bulb is enough), you have to ensure that he respects his natural cycle of activity, nutrition and rest.
Diurnal birds feed and are active only during the day, they sleep at night and need peace and darkness. You have to feed the baby diurnal bird from early dawn, all day, every half hour to an hour, until dusk, when the baby itself will indicate that it is time to sleep.
At dusk, the feeding of young night birds begins and continues until the morning, when the time for their rest and sleep begins. The space where they stay should be pleasantly darkened, because even in nature they choose such places for daily rest.
While the bird is with you
If at all possible, it is good and desirable to provide contact between the cub and the parents, because they will not leave it. After a few days of maturing and feeding with you, they will quickly and easily join their own and continue their normal life. His parents will take care of him.
During the stay of any baby bird with you, do not tame it, do not accustom it to you, do not introduce it to domestic animals you have (dog, cat) because it will lose its fear of them and outside very quickly, thinking that other dogs and cats will not harm. This is especially true for crows, magpies and jays, which spend a lot of time on the ground feeding.
Nutrition
To feed baby birds, use longer tweezers that at least slightly resemble the parent's beak.
For cubs that feed on insects and are omnivores, it is necessary to give raw ground or finely chopped beef/chicken meat, the pieces are placed deeper in the open beak, in the throat because that is how the parents feed it.
If you put the food outside of that place, the bird is more likely to spit it out. Finely chopped walnuts, peeled sunflower seeds can be added to the diet and mixed into the meals during the day, and it is good to add pieces of seasonal fruit and cereal (wheat) as often as possible to omnivorous cubs.
It is mandatory to give water through a syringe or pipette, drop a little in the bird's beak with a meal until it learns to drink on its own.
For cubs that feed on grains, it is necessary to give various grains of smaller grains (millet, wheat, linseed, muvar), chopped walnuts, uncleaned sunflower seeds and water, as well.
Return the bird to nature
Do not keep the birds for long. As soon as it grows, grows stronger and starts to fly more safely and longer, enough to move from branch to branch, immediately let it out, because any stay in a closed space in inadequate conditions for a wild bird is actually an interruption and stagnation in growth and development.
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