Wild Thing > Eye on the sparrow

Chance encounters with seemingly distressed young animals can really test one’s resolve to “Let nature take its course,” especially now, when the world is filled with new life. Recently I was jogging near my house when I saw a baby sparrow, perched on a patch of grass by a sidewalk, its small mouth agape as if begging for food.

The bird was fully fledged and almost full-size, but obviously it could not yet fly. Mom was nowhere to be seen, and she did not appear though I spent at least 10 minutes there, watching over the bird and urging it to spread its small wings and fly.

In years past, a misguided sense of heroism might have led me to immediately “rescue” the sparrow. So many times as a kid I took in abandoned or injured baby birds, squirrels and bunnies and tried to provide the care, nutrition and warmth they would have gotten from their real mothers. If you’ve done the same, you know such efforts seldom end well. And it’s so sad to see the small creatures you long to help quickly sicken and die.

I forced myself to walk away, leaving that defenseless sparrow all alone (though I did move it from the sidewalk to a fenced yard, where I thought it would be safer). I reminded myself as I left that the bird was not necessarily in a dire situation; in fact, this was a very necessary and natural transition. Baby birds don’t just soar willingly from the nest; they’re prodded, pushed and propelled by their parents, then forced by sheer necessity to fly or die. In the best-case scenario, the mother bird hovers nearby, and will come back periodically and feed her baby while it struggles to become aerodynamic.

Yes, birds are very vulnerable at this point—to cats and other predators, and to well-meaning rescuers like me—but without this rite of passage, they would never take flight at all.

When I got home, I consulted one of my favorite books, “Care of the Wild, Feathered and Furred,” which has been my wildlife bible for years. It affirmed for me that I had taken the right action, but also said that if the mother bird did not return by nightfall, it would be the responsibility of any onlooker to intervene on the bird’s behalf.

If you face a dilemma like this, here are some tips from askthebirder.com:

* Remember that the fatality rate of baby birds taken in by kindhearted people is very high. Resist the impulse to “save” a bird unless it’s absolutely necessary.

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