upatsix.com - Your Source For Pet Bird Information

We found a little baby bird (blue jay we think) hopping about in our flower bed in the front of the house. It had feathers but wasn't flying, just hopping about and then trying to huddle closely into the corner of the front porch to keep out of the rain. We are in a new development, so there aren't a lot of trees very close and the ones in our front yard are still very small and no nests could be found. My husband said he thought he had seen some adult birds flying around that were keeping an eye on it. I looked on the internet and found out that baby birds often spend several days on the ground while learning to fly and that the parents hover around and feed them as long as humans and pets stay away. I was so worried that the little baby had been abandoned that I woke up early the next morning and watched outside the front window a while. As luck has it, one big blue jay landed on our one little tree and had what looked like a worm in its mouth, then another bird landed on the top of the tree next to this bird. They remained on the tops of the trees for several minutes checking things out and then I heard the little baby start chirping and chirping! I still wasn't sure what was happening, but prayed that this was Mom and Dad here to feed him. Shortly afterwards, the Mommy or Daddy bird with food in mouth, flew to the top of our front porch and then I saw it swoop down into the flower bed, remain there a minute and then fly off in tandem with the other bird. I was so excited to see this and to know that the little hopper was being taken care of. We saw the baby once more after that. He had actually got up onto the front porch and was huddled in the corner of our house where he left a big pile of poop for such a little fellow! We haven't seen him since then, but hope that he has flown off happily to be with Mom and Dad again.

Some bird species are better than others in caring for babies that have left the nest a little too early,
and it usually is a matter of only a couple of days before the baby is strong enough to follow the parents.
Thanks for your care and your observations.

And thank you for not interfering with the natural fledging process in birds!!

Of course. sometimes, intervention is necessary.