It’s been pouring rain here in Utah the past three days. Yesterday was no exception. As the kids and I were driving to a dance performance for the girls I saw some birds flying up from the road just ahead of us. I looked more closely and saw a very small bird, just hopping in the middle of the road and not flying. "What in the world?!" I said. "What is that tiny bird?" I stopped the car and we got out.
Lo and behold–the bird was a tiny baby House Finch, a fledgling, big enough to leave the nest but not capable of flying yet. It was SO CUTE. And we knew that he/she was right in the path of oncoming traffic and the next car that came along would kill him. I had learned a couple of years ago that the whole "don’t touch baby birds because their parents will smell humans and abandon them" thing is a MYTH. Birds don’t have a very good sense of smell–they rely mainly on sight and hearing. (See this excellent article and video for good instructions of what to do if you find a baby bird.)
I also knew that a bird with most of his "baby fluff" gone and his regular, "adult" feathers grown in had likely left the nest on purpose and just needed to be left alone…but out of the road, of course! We could hear his very worried parents in the tree nearby.
So I told Ciara to gently pick up the baby and carry him to the sidewalk. She bent down and cupped her hands around the baby, and he climbed right into her hands. The look on her face as she carried him to the sidewalk was one I’ll never forget. As she put the baby down carefully near the grass and away from the road, she said, "This is the best day of my life."
We were so glad we had come along right then because as Ciara was walking to the sidewalk to put him down, a car came along right where he’d been. The baby would’ve died if we were five minutes later leaving our house.
The kids went back later to check on him and make sure he wasn’t back in the road. There was no sign of him, and we hope that his parents (rather than a cat or something!) took him to a safe place where he can spend his next few weeks learning to find food on the ground and growing more feathers and developing his muscles until he can safely fly away.
Kiirsi,
I was so touched by what you did to save the precious life of this little bird. When I read what Ciara said: “This is the best day of my life” it brought tears to my eyes. It is so beautiful to see a child treat a baby animal with such compassion.
Nice job, Ciara!
Linda
What a beautiful story. Love the care and compassion you both showed.
How can adult birds move a fledgling from their nest to a safer place? They can’t pick him up like cats and dogs pick up their young.
Thank you for all the lovely comments! You ladies are great. I appreciate you. Kaari, fledglings are big enough to leave the nest…they get too big for the nest and have to leave, but they aren’t able to fly at first, or at least, not very well. The parents continue to take care of them and monitor them, teaching them on the ground how to find bugs and seeds. Usually the babies don’t go in roads but stay under bushes and on the grass to be safer.
I imagine they may “move” the babies by hopping and/or flying near them, chirping at them and telling them to come to a different area. I don’t really know.
We have now seen a baby house finch come to our front feeder in the past couple of weeks. At first, he would just perch clumsily on a branch and flap his wings for balance as his dad would feed him. Then he started learning how to cling to the feeders and get the food for himself. We don’t know if it’s the same one or a different one. They sure do grow quickly!