In this section we will look at the problems of caring for a wild half grown fledgling. It will not take food off you and wants to escape your evil clutches. We must train it to come to us for food just like in the nestling section.
In this scenario I shall use a fledgling song thrush as my model. They are very similar to blackbirds in behavior, eating almost the same food, but don't seem as dependent on worms as the former. They do very well on dog or cat meat, with some moist bread, but they prefer meat, seeming more carnivorous than the blacky. Again, maggots are excellent to introduce them to hunting for themselves.
When the bird arrives it will be very frightened, probably hungry and missing its parents. The first thing to do is give it a good examination, looking for broken bones or wounds or anything else that may be wrong with it. Handle it very gently though firmly. If you are right handed then hold it in your left hand. Check that its legs are not broken or hurt in any way. Then with its two legs held between your fingers, spread first one wing then the other to check them out. Feel its breastbone. This should be well covered in flesh, not sharp. That is, the keel shouldn't be sticking out, but should be well rounded each side with muscle. If it is sharp, then you have to decide to what degree, as this is the best indication you'll get as to how its been feeding. Very sharp indicates starving and the bird must be fed soon if its to survive. This will also mean the bird is dehydrated and needs water. I find it very useful to keep a sterile pack of Hartmann`s Solution - AQUPHARM No 11, and Glucose - AQUPHARM No 6. complete with small syringes to extract the mixtures from the containers hygienically. (Your local vet should be able to advise you on where best to obtain these). In extreme cases I would administer a small dose of each before feeding the bird. If you have neither, then just plain old water will do. Add some glucose if you have any. Care must be taken though when forcing a bird to take fluids, as it's very easy to drown them, their windpipe being situated where it is just behind the tongue. It's therefore advisable to fit a small tube to the end of a syringe and push this useful instrument down past the danger zone before administrating the fluid. A little bird's beak is very soft, so be most gentle. If the patient is very thin it will the have to be force-fed. It's easier with an assistant to help, one opening the beak, the other carefully pushing in the food with the long-nosed pliers or long pointed scissors. Not too much at one time, little and often being the motto.
If you find any injuries on the bird take it to your local vet to be treated, explaining that you aim to rehabilitate the bird.
Hopefully though, no injuries will be found and the fledgling is a little barrel of a thing, having been well fed by its parents before falling into the hands of some well meaning person, unwittingly thinking they were rescuing it. Lets assume therefore that our little critter is one of these unfortunates, but we don't know from whence it hailed so have to rehabilitate it from home.
It has until now been reared by its own parents so
it should not imprint* itself on humans in the same way as a nestling reared
by humans would, which is a good thing. However, some form of imprinting must
take place for us to 'hack' or control-release the bird the way we intend to.
The whole question of imprinting is one of some complexity, which needs to be
given great thought. For now, we shall content ourselves with the job in hand,
which is to train our little song thrush and release it by a free hack back
into its wild state. Hacking by the way is an ancient falconry term given to
the very process we intend inducting out feathered friend into. Anyway lets
press on.
*Imprinting: The term used for a bird adopting a human as its parent
The first thing to do then, in this case, is to place the bird in a cardboard box with the lid open, but covered with a dark cloth. This will have the effect of calming the poor thing down. Being in the dark has a calming affect on all birds. If we then leave it alone for about hour it will be ready for the next stage of the operation.
Get some food ready and your pliers and quietly approach the box. The room by the way, should not be to brightly lit. The bird by this time will be feeling peckish and is probably calling to its mum with its "feed me!" call, so you oblige it. Peel back the cloth covering as smoothly as possible and offer it the food in the point of the pliers. It will most likely open its beak right away. If it does, pop in the food as quickly and precisely as you can. If it looks at all anxious pull back the cloth and leave for a little while longer. This method is far better than force-feeding, but there are occasions when this is the only option.
A few feeding sessions along these lines and the patient will soon be greeting you with its food-begging. Now is the time to transfer it to a small hutch. The type with a dark sleeping compartment and with a weld-mesh covered door on the other. Place the little tike in here and cover the front over again with a cloth, a light coloured one this time. That will allow a diffused light into the compartment. Let the bird settle into its new surroundings, then feed as before. There may be some hesitation at first, but by gentle persuasion you will win it over and regular feeding can be carried out. The cloth must be moved aside a little at a time at each visit to expose the inmate to the wide world outside. It's a good idea to put some leafy foliage inside the caged section, where our young bird can hide and practice using its splendid camouflage to good effect. If it looks like it may try to beat itself against the wire or push its beak into the mesh, then restore the cloth. If you have to leave it on its own for any length of time, replace the cloth. Do not risk it injuring itself on the mesh. I should put a shallow water container in with it as well. Even though it may not take a drink from it, it should have the option.
Every feeding visit you make, which will be every half hour to an hour depending how much you actually get down it each time, you should be training it to come toward you on your approach. It will back away with beak agape calling its 'feed me' notes. Enticing you to follow it and give it, its meal, but you must reverse this procedure and get it moving to you. Once you have achieved this, which wont be long, for they soon learn, you can open the hutch door and let it out. Don't of course let it fly away. Cage it in your hands as before described and transport it to the chosen hack area. Making sure it can hide in the foliage, where it will happily remain all day whilst you continue its feeding. Toward the close of day pick it up and replace it in the covered hutch for the night. It could stay out all night, but would instinctively want to fly high up to a safe roost, which at this stage of its early training would be inadvisable.
The next morning it can be put back in its hiding place for the day. Don't encourage it to fly as yet. This it will do quite naturally as it gets older and bolder, eventually flying all about the garden exploring and learning its trade, but for now and for about a week, keep caging it each night for its own protection. Leaving it out all Friday night say, so you can be up early Saturday to lure it down from the hedge for its breakfast. More than likely you will hear it calling for you as you lie in bed and will be forced to get up and sort it out. It will be at the back door awaiting you. A week or so of this and the frightened little bird that you first took in hand will by now be a confident juvenile song thrush, that will be serenading you with its little songs from a bush somewhere in the garden and flying about with a youthful dash that will take your breath away. Then one rather sad but fulfilling day, it will be gone and a special light gone from your garden.
Thrushes, at least the ones we have come to known personally, have all been strong characters. The larger mistle thrush being more so than the song thrush, but the latter can hold its own too. The other day Syl, my wife, was feeding our latest song'y, allowing it a rather large piece of bread, to encourage it to self-feed. Being very naive and trusting at this stage it took little notice of the local sparrows that always pop in when they see us feeding a new arrival. So there it stood, wondering what to do with its prize when…! There it was gone. A cheeky female sparrow whipped it out of its beak and was away with it in a flash, our luckless waif staring unbelievingly after it. A few days later found our hero chasing the sparrows away from its food. If we'd kept it confined in a cage, it wouldn't have learnt to handle itself in this way. 'Street wise' we call it.
Working at home in my den with the window open, tapping
away at the computer keys, it's really nice to hear our song`y calling from
outside in the garden. I answer it and in it comes through the window "So
here you are!" I could almost here it saying. "Have you any grub for
me?" with a cock of its head it implores, making its beautiful way across
the sill. Now isn't an incident like this worth all the time and trouble spent?