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Spring is springing, slowly but surely.
Feb. 12th, 2013 12:17 pmWhich means pretty soon we will have baby birds aplenty, and with that we will have well-meaning adults giving bad advice to kids, bad advice that can accidentally kill little birdies.
If you see a baby bird on the ground, and you've already touched it, that doesn't matter. The mother bird won't reject it for smelling too humanish because birds have an awful sense of smell. They live in trees and fly around, and a sense of smell isn't very useful to them. Birds can generally see color, but as a rule they have a crappy sense of smell.
You shouldn't go picking up baby birds for the lulz, because birds are small and fragile and humans, especially OUR young, are big and clumsy and can hurt them, but if you already have and haven't injured the baby there's no harm done, you don't need to either resign yourself to its death or try to raise it yourself. (And if it does come to that then you should contact a wildlife rehabilitator to take care of your baby songbird. They know what they're doing.) You can probably just put the birdie back where you found it, or in a safe and sheltered place near to where you found it and walk away.
If your sincere, honest, and educated opinion is that this bird still belongs in the nest (and many leave before they can fly), and you see the nest right there, you can put the bird back in, gently. With your hands, because that part doesn't matter.
http://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/health/rehabilitation/baby_birds.html
If you see a baby bird on the ground, and you've already touched it, that doesn't matter. The mother bird won't reject it for smelling too humanish because birds have an awful sense of smell. They live in trees and fly around, and a sense of smell isn't very useful to them. Birds can generally see color, but as a rule they have a crappy sense of smell.
You shouldn't go picking up baby birds for the lulz, because birds are small and fragile and humans, especially OUR young, are big and clumsy and can hurt them, but if you already have and haven't injured the baby there's no harm done, you don't need to either resign yourself to its death or try to raise it yourself. (And if it does come to that then you should contact a wildlife rehabilitator to take care of your baby songbird. They know what they're doing.) You can probably just put the birdie back where you found it, or in a safe and sheltered place near to where you found it and walk away.
If your sincere, honest, and educated opinion is that this bird still belongs in the nest (and many leave before they can fly), and you see the nest right there, you can put the bird back in, gently. With your hands, because that part doesn't matter.
http://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/health/rehabilitation/baby_birds.html
