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Rescued baby bird



Hi there,

Last weekend I went up to the mountains, to Burnsville, NC, for a vacation at 
a dude ranch. While we were there, we went on a hike to Roaring Fork Falls, 
up in the woods, not far from Mt. Mitchell.

While we were in the woods, I was of course looking for birds. Black Throated 
Blues and Hoodeds were abundant on the path to the falls, plus I heard calls 
from a whole bunch that I am not familiar with.

Anyway, I was off a ways from the rest of the group. when I saw what I took 
at first to be a brown leaf fluttering down from a ledge above my head. Then 
the leaf changed direction, and continued its fall over the edge of a bank, 
toward the stream below.

Not really giving it much thought, I made my way back down to the group. We 
were just getting ready to pose for pictures when I saw a bird fluttering in 
the shallow water of the stream, in a little sheltered pool between two 
steep, slippery rocks. I pointed it out as a bathing bird to my friends, but 
then realized that the bird wasn't bathing, but trying desperately to get out 
of the water.

I waded in, new boots, jeans and all, to frigid water up to my shins, and 
plucked a tiny brown baby bird out of the water. He was obviously a baby, and 
not ready to be out on his own. He had a few adult feathers, but still had 
his yellow "gapes" and was covered in baby fluff on his head and chest. He 
was the tiniest feathered baby I have ever seen; his head was about the size 
of my thumbnail. I assumed it was a warbler of some sort, based on the size.

He (she?) was wet and shivering, so I tucked him into my shirt pocket to get 
him warm. After posing for a few pictures, we decided to head back to the 
ranch. I debated what to do with my foundling. The parents were nowhere to be 
found. I couldn't find the nest, and wasn't even sure of where the baby had 
come from. 

I guess I should have just dried the baby off and left him in a sheltered 
place so the parents could find him. But there were so many snakes around, 
plus the guide mentioned bobcats and lynx in the area, that I decided to 
bring the little bird back to the ranch with me. The guide also told me that 
one of the staff at the ranch was a trained rehabilitator, so I decided the 
baby's best chance would be with her.

Unfortunately, the rehabilitator was leaving to go back to California the 
next day, and would not be able to take the baby with her. Plan B went into 
affect. I got a box and kept the baby in it, supplied with water and food 
every hour from sunup to sundown. I had decided to bring the baby back to 
Raleigh with me, to give him over to a rehabilitator here.

The ride home was interesting, with the baby tweetering non-stop, and begging 
for food about every 45 minutes. Luckily we found a shop that sold 
nightcrawlers at the start of the trip, and chopped into tiny bits, they were 
heartily accepted by the baby. A Q-tip with its tip frayed and dipped in 
water made a perfect tool for giving the baby a drink without A) drowning it 
or B) drenching it.

Once we got back to Raleigh, I took the baby straight to the After Hours 
Emergency Animal Clinic off of Vick road. I have taken songbirds to them 
before, because they have a list of licensed rehabilitators in the area. They 
said they would pass the baby on to someone who could take care of it.

I wish I could contact the rehabilitator, but the folks at the clinic don’t 
give out any contact info. I wish I could know if the baby is OK, and what 
kind of bird it is. He was mostly drab olive-brown, with a little yellowish 
wash to his belly, and a light yellow-white eyebrow. I know I didn’t follow 
the rules that apply to finding a baby bird in the wild, and a part of me 
feels very guilty about it. But I tried to use my own judgment based on the 
circumstances, and I feel that what I did gave the baby a much better chance 
of survival than leaving it in the woods.

Lisa G.
lisabirder@aol.com
Raleigh, NC