As faithful readers know, every year at this time I post a rant about people who “help” by picking up fledgling birds who are on the ground and bringing them to me because “the bird can’t fly.” This is the equivalent of taking a baby from his or her stroller and bringing them to Child Protective Services because “the kid can’t walk.” Of course not–it’s a baby. Give it time and it will be running all over the place. The same is true of birds. The youngsters leave the nest before they can fly. They spend a couple of days on the ground figuring out flight controls and then take off (literally). Their parents are guarding them. Leave them alone.
Every year I rant and every year birdnapped fledgling appear at Diva Crows. This year we are taking a different approach: We will induct anyone who prevents a birdnapping into the Order of the Steel Crow. Convincing someone to leave a fledge alone is not for the faint of heart. Only by patiently explaining over and over again that the parents are still feeding the baby even if it doesn’t seem that way can a birdnapping be thwarted. It requires having a backbone and nerves of steel to respond to protests about weather conditions (yes, it may rain and the bird may get wet but its feathers will keep it warm), predators (uh, from the bird’s point of view, that’s what you are, dear sir/madam), or counter-arguments based on advice from a (clueless) neighbor and/or the internet (ugh).
To prove we mean what we say, here is the emblem of our honorable Order: a beautiful crow made of etched steel forged specifically for Diva Crows.
So send us your stories of prevented, thwarted, intercepted, or otherwise foiled birdnappings and we will enter your name into the rolls of Diva Crow’s exclusive and prestigious Order of the Steel Crow.
We live in a neighborhood with lots of cats (some are feral), and often kill young hurt birds and small animals. A little over fifteen years ago, a family member was in the front yard when a small bald baby crow fell on her head from one of trees. Because she was eighty, she couldn’t do much for it, as she saw it struggling to gain footing in the yard. she stay in the yard to keep and eye out for the parents but after a few hours they still had not come and she determined that because a few feral cats were gathered around the fence, they there not take a chance. when one of the larger cat jumped over the fence, the baby crow saw it, it scrambled toward the family member screaming. she wrapped a towel around it and took her to safety in the house. It has been with us since then and is very animated, tries talking with our family member, chortles at night when she climbs into her cage and to have covers on it. During the day, she caws when wants to be uncovered and have her door in the cage opened. Everyday she spends some of day following the family member around. She enjoys a little sloppy joe, bread crumbs, chopped lettuce and Dasani water. When the food goes stale she won’t eat it, or when the water is slightly tainted she rocks and water container until it is dumped or changed. We had no intention to do bird napping but she thinks she is family and doesn’t have a bird habitat that we know of for her to be at.