Bird
If baby birds are clearly injured or in imminent danger, contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. If featherless or nearly featherless baby birds have fallen from their nest but appear unharmed, put them back in the nest if you can do so without danger to yourself. (It is a myth that birds will abandon their young if a person touches them.)
Fully feathered birds
If the original nest was destroyed or is too high to reach, hang a small, shallow wicker basket close to where the original nest was. Woven stick baskets from garden stores or supermarket floral departments work well; they resemble natural nests and allow rain to pass through so the birds won't drown. Adult birds won't jump into anything they cannot see out of, so make sure the basket is not too deep. Put the fallen babies into the new nest and keep watch from a distance for an hour to make sure the parent birds return to the new nest to feed their chicks. Watch closely, because parent birds can be quite stealthy. If they definitely do not return, contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator.
Nearly or mostly featherless birds
These birds will become too cold in a makeshift nest, so you must place them in the original nest. If that's not possible, take them to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. Remember that baby birds do best when raised by their parents or other birds, so try to reunite them with their parents before calling a rehabilitator.
Fledglings
Birds with fully feathered bodies, but short or non-existent tail feathers may be fledglings (adolescent birds who have left the nest). You might see them hopping on the ground, unable to fly. This is normal; birds learn to fly from the ground up! Fledglings might remain on the ground for a few days or even a week, supervised and fed by their parents a few times each hour before they get the hang of flying. You can tell if the fledglings are being fed by watching from a distance to see whether a parent bird flies over to them, usually a few times an hour. You can also look for white-grey feces near the fledgling. Birds defecate after being fed, so the presence of fecal material means that the birds are being cared for. Be sure to keep cats indoors and dogs leashed until the fledglings are old enough to fly. If you are positive that the parents aren't returning to feed the babies, contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator.
Other Rehabilitators
Chicago bird collision monitors
773 988-1867
https://www.birdmonitors.net/ContactUs.php
Why they are important
As with other native organisms, birds help maintain sustainable population levels of their prey and predator species and, after death, provide food for scavengers and decomposers. Many birds are important in plant reproduction through their services as pollinators or seed dispersers.
Interesting Facts
- Ravens are great at mimicking human speech and sounds.
- Ostriches have the largest eyes of any land animal.
- Cardinals like to cover themselves in ants.
- Owls devour their prey whole.
- Some ducks sleep with one eye open.
- Most hummingbirds weigh less than a nickel.
- In ancient Greece, pigeons delivered the results of the Olympic games.
- Parrots can learn to say hundreds of words.
- Bassian thrushes find food by farting.
- Woodpeckers hoard acorns.
- The unique black and white coloring of penguins works as camoflage.
- Budgerigars, or budgies, a common parakeet, are the only bird species so far discovered who are susceptible to contagious yawning
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