Throughout June, I heard a Baltimore oriole singing, “Tee dear, dear,” every morning from a silver maple tree in the yard.
Then, just before the Fourth of July, two adult orioles began bringing tender morsels of yumminess to a hanging, pendulous nest in the tree. The eggs had hatched.
It’s the season of baby birds — a time to enjoy their antics and to learn what to do if a young bird has fallen out of its nest.
First, note that there’s a difference between nestlings and fledglings. Nestlings are unable to fly. They are dependent on their parents to bring them food and to brood them in a nest where they hatched from eggs laid by the mother.
Fledglings have left the nest and can fly, usually weakly at first. If you find a fledgling on the ground, leave it be.
You’ll see all kinds of fledgling robins this time of year — and you can hear them, too, screaming at their parents, begging for food. Identify the young robins by the spots on their breasts as opposed to their parents’ smooth red breasts.
This time of year you also might see a comical-looking bird that appears to be tailless. It’s likely a young bird. The tail feathers are the last to appear on many young birds including robins, blue jays and cardinals.
If you see a bird quivering its wings in a tree, it’s likely waiting for mom or dad to deposit some food into its gape. Fledglings will follow parents to feeders, quivering, hollering and begging to be fed, even though it’s apparent they have learned to feed themselves.
Sometimes, whether from wind, storm or other event, a nestling bird will fall to the ground. Don’t worry. There’s no need to put it in a box and bring it inside and try to feed it yourself. That action may actually lead to the bird’s demise.
There’s also no need to call a wildlife rehabilitator, either, unless the birds is injured.
The parents will find the young and feed it even if it has fallen. However, if you’d like to give it a better chance to survive and not be caught by a predator, you can set it onto the branch of a tree or shrub, where it might be safer.
Some folks are able to find the bird’s nest and place the young back inside — that’s OK, too, but be aware that sometimes the scared bird might just plop right onto the ground again.
If that happens, place the bird in the shrub and hold your hands over the bird until it settles down. Then leave quickly. Also, after returning a bird to a shrub or nest, keep your pets from running loose in your yard for a few days.
People don’t like to hear this but not every fallen nestling survives. All you can do is set them back in a safe place. The rest really is up to their parents and to nature.
“Nearly everyone has heard the tale that you don’t touch a baby bird or the parents will smell your scent and not return. While completely false, this tale has probably saved countless birds,” according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website. “We must trust the parents to raise the next generation; they have been doing this successfully for millions of years.”
For those who put up bird nesting boxes in spring, now is a good time to watch for the young to fledge. One year, I was lucky to see a bevy of house wrens depart their natal homes one by one from a human-made nest box.
Some people don’t like house wrens because they take eggs from other birds’ nests, drop them on the ground and then take over the nest. But watching young house wrens fledge, or any bird fledge, can be a humbling and intimate nature experience.
The wren parents sat in a nearby tree, gurgling and bubbling and calling to the young inside the box. The young wanted to be fed, but the parents’ language told them there would be no food delivery today.
Soon, one young house wren peeked outside the nest hole, saw its parents and took the plunge, landing safely on a branch. Then came another and another. But one decided it would rather stay inside. All the encouragement and chortling from the parents didn’t seem to help. It would peek outside, then retreat back to its nest.
In what seemed a very long time, the last young one finally entered a brave new world.
Sheryl DeVore has worked as a full-time and freelance reporter, editor and photographer for the Chicago Tribune and its subsidiaries. She’s the author of several books on nature and the environment. Send story ideas and thoughts to sheryldevorewriter@gmail.com.
