Baby blue jay is stuck - help! (1 Viewer)

Hello - We have a blue jay nest in a tree right outside our living room window. The mother had 5 babies, 3 of which figured out their wings and left today. The fourth is still in the nest, and the fifth appears to be stuck at the bottom of the nest between some small branches. He/she has been like that for the last 24 hours. How can we help the bird? Momma Blue Jay got upset with me when I went outside to examine, so I left. Should we wait until the 4th bird leaves? What do I need to know about rescuing the 5th bird?

The prevailing thought is let nature take it's course, intervene as little as possible if at all.

A few years ago I had a House Sparrow nest in my front yard tree. It was in a nest box. All the chicks fledged except one. The adult birds kept trying to entice that little chick out of the box. That little chick would poke it's head out the hole and chirp away but she would go no further. This went on for days. The adult birds continued to feed that chick all day long but the chick wouldn't exit the box.

I kinda forgot about it until one day about a week later I noticed that chick looked like a full grown Sparrow..!! Not only that but those adult birds where still feeding it.

It was at this point I figured time to intervene. I took the nest box down and pried the roof off the box. Sparrows make a messy nest, kinda tunnel like and they build right over an old nest. After clearing off the top of the 'tunnel' I found the chick (now a grown bird) had it foot wrapped around a sturdy bit of string that it's parents used at the start of it's nest building. The string was intertwined with some twigs at the bottom of the nest. After I cut that string the House Sparrow flew off like she's been flying all her life.

I hope this story eases your anxiety a little.

Watch what goes on for the next day or so, it may work it's self out.

Good luck my friend.