This is Bob, our robin orphan (or so I thought).
Bob the Robin
Friday afternoon the girls and I were getting ready to head to Micheal’s when I saw this baby bird hoping down the street. That didn’t seem like a very safe place for a little birdy so I scooped him up into a bucket and went to show Addie who was already in her car seat. We agreed to figure out how to take care of a baby bird instead of going to Micheal’s since it seemed a lot more fun and the little guy was bopping around with his mouth open and seemed hungry.
After a quick google search we found that you can feed baby robins worms, chicken, fruits, or wet dog food. Since we happened to have dog food I figured we’d try that first. While we were waiting for it to get soggy Addie ran around on the deck flapping her wings trying to show him how to fly. He didn’t catch on. Once the food was wet I tried to feed him a piece but he wouldn’t open his mouth and I didn’t figure he’d be too happy about me trying to pry his beak open so we came inside to see if he’d relax a little.
And I did some more reading. Turns out that if you find a fledgling (with real feathers, not just fuzz) you’re supposed to help it find its parents because they’re probably still around taking care of it. Oops. Sorry little guy! We brought him out to the front yard and looked for a nest in the trees near where we found him but couldn’t find any. At that point we put him in the grass hoping he’d call for his parents and they’d come get him but no such luck. Knowing he’d be hungry I thought I’d try to feed him again. I remembered we had some pureed pears in the freezer so I thought I’d give them a try and he happily ate them! Woohoo, he wouldn’t starve! Since I didn’t want him to be eaten by a critter over night we scooped him back up and went to eat our dinner.
Once the kiddos were in bed I went out back with him and fed him some more (and nearly got eat by mosquitoes myself). He hopped around for a bit before I put him into a box for the night so I could cover it with the baby gate. Since Addie’s attempts at teaching him to fly were unsuccessful and I’m no expert on how to pull worms out of the ground (without turning over rocks or flooding them out with the a hose) I decided we really needed to find this guys parents the next day. Assuming they hadn’t been run over or eaten themselves.
This morning Piper decided to get up at 6:15 so we came down and our little bird was up too (phew, he survived the night!). We fed him more pears and left the gate off his box. Well, Piper decided that she had had enough of the morning by 6:45 so we both went back to bed. Addie got up at 8 (woohoo!) so she and I came downstairs and she wanted to see the bird. As we were heading outside we saw a mama robin sitting on the railing chirping away like she was upset. I told Addie it was probably our baby’s mom! Of course she flew away when we went outside but she stayed in a nearby tree. We brought our little guy down into the yard, let him out of his box, and he hopped about 10 feet away from us. Knowing mama bird wouldn’t come back with us standing there we headed up to go inside and watch from a distance but as soon as we got up on the deck she flew down to him with a worm in her mouth!
She showed him the worm and then started hopping over towards a patch of ivy near our fence and Bob followed! It was the cutest little thing. She’d take a few hops, turn around and wait for him to follow, then a few more and a few more. Once she got into the ivy she flew into a tree until he was right under her with his little mouth open begging for food. As soon as he was hidden (enough) by the ivy she came down and fed him. She flew off and came back with another worm and gave that to him as well. At that point it was hard for Addie to see so we came in to grab her binoculars but they were gone by the time we got back outside. Every once in a while you’d catch a glimpse of her leading him across the neighbors yard. I can only assume she was taking him back towards their nest so she could keep an eye on the trouble maker while taking care of his siblings. And we haven’t seen him since which is a good thing!
All-in-all it was a fun experience and educational for both Addie and myself!
