*EDIT* Boomerang dissapeared in September... His survival instincts are pretty much NIL, and he had a thing for moving cars (he was pretty much raised in one!) so i'm assuming he's up in that big bowl of cornflakes in the sky... Regarldess, I'll be leaving my windows open in spring, hoping he'll come back.
I do not advocate the keeping of wild animals as pets, or removing baby wild animals from their homes.
If you find a baby bird on the ground near your home, chances are it will be a fledgeling and is learning how to fly. Give it a good chance of surviving by teaching your kids to leave the bird alone, and try to train your cats to be indoor pets!
If the bird is a nestling, (has few or no feathers, a lot of bare skin, isn't able to move around easily) see if you can find its nest. Wild birds do NOT distinguish their babies by scent, so it is possible to place the baby back into the nest!
If no nest can be found, make an artificial nest using tissue paper in box, and place the box in a warm, quiet place in your home.
CALL A WILDLIFE RESCUE!
Wild birds that are raised by people have SO LITTLE chance of surviving in the wild, and will certainly not be happy in a cage for the rest of their lives - Most houses are not a suitable home for a wild bird!
If you can not find a rehabilitation center that will take the bird for you, It is still against the law to keep wild birds in Canada and the USA...
So... hopefully you can keep a secret!
This is Boomerang,
A Baltimore Oriole.
A friend of mine who had passed by my house around 9PM let me know he'd seen this tiny little bird sitting on the sidewalk...
So at 11PM on a windy rainy night I was scouring the pavement for a little ball of feathers with a flashlight on a keychain.
Wonder what the neighbors thought I was looking for?
Boomerang was ice cold and barely hanging on to life when I found him (Right where Julian said he'd be)
The only sign that there was any hope at all was the little clutching feet that could barely grip the skin on my palm... But after a few hours of warming up (Around 4AM) that bird was awake and HUNGRY!
For the next three days, I packed for a move to Ottawa with a bird in one hand (or when it suited him, in a tissue box on my computer monitor) and a cellphone held between my head and my shoulder.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find a bird rehabilitation center that would take him (without a promise of humane euthanization)
So for the next six weeks, I shared the backseat of a Honda Civic every night with a hungry, messy, fussy baby who woke me up every morning at dawn for breakfast.
I was so lucky to have such patient employers and co-workers, who braved bird turds, splattered berries, and incessant chirping during work hours, so that Boomerang wouldn't cook like an egg in the car on hot days.
It was only a matter of time before Boomerang figured out how to open his day-cage door (one morning after i had put him in his cage outside the car so I could get an extra half hour of sleep)
I woke up to him proudly chirping, poked my head out the curtains (sheet over the car window) to find him not in his cage, but three feet above the car perched on a tree branch.
After a quick trip to a nearby fence and back, he decided to join us in the car. Carlo was still sleeping in the passenger seat when Boomerang flew in the window and landed on his head. (He loved Carlo's hair... must have been that tangerine scented shampoo!)
From then on, Boomerang was Boomerang instead of just "Bird" except when we were all too lazy to pronounce three whole syllables.
Boomerang loved sitting on the steering wheel of the car.
His favorite foods were bits of cheese (which he gleefully stole from my salad) oranges, blueberries and cherries (which he would paint the walls with) anything at all you were eating, anything close to a person's mouth, and anything that you would try to stop him from eating. (crayons, buttons, anything he could pick up, wave around in front of you to get you nervous about him injesting and fly away with)
Oh and cereal? Yeah, Boomerang LOVED cereal... Eating cornflakes... -bathing- in them too.
Just one final thank you to everyone who tolerated Boomerang (And myself) during those difficult weeks in Ottawa. Making things work there may have been damn near impossible, but I was really lucky to have such patient employers and coworkers who were willing to put up with such unusual circumstances... And I'm not just talking about the bird XD
*2009 edit* I just audioswapped, as the last track (offered by youtube for posting in videos) was disabled or whatever,
And the title of this song is called "crumbs and seeds"
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A Blue Jay Named Charlie!by spatzy17,954 views
This is a darling video.. reminded me of the times I raised baby birds. I've had at least a dozen different species, my fav being a blue jay, so mischevious, yet so lovable, as all birds are.
RuthieCS 2 years ago
jesus watching it eat as a baby was kind of scary! looks hard to raise but i guess you did i good job cuz it looks nice!
sizzlinjeff12 3 years ago