Help with baby robin (1 Viewer)

Hello everyone! I am new to this site and to the world of birds as well, but i was hoping i could get some help and advice. Yesterday, as I was driving down the street, I noticed a large group of about 10 children standing on a front lawn. They were gathered in a circle and they were poking and prodding at something on the ground and screaming. I pulled over and quickly discovered that it was a baby robin on the ground. I got out of the car and picked up the baby immediately, fearing it was injured. It was not hurt, but very distressed-as were its parents, which were swooping overhead, trying to scare away the children. The kids admitted to me that it had been out of its nest, which was apparently higher in the tree (although i could not see it) and it had been perched in a lower part of the tree, which is when they had knocked it down with sticks. The kids ranged from ages 5-10 years, although for some reason no parents had come out during all the commotion, nor did they come out as i stood on the front lawn. Ideally, i wanted to return the bird to its nest, but seeing as i could not see it and probably couldn't reach it, I made the quick decision to take the bird away from the children. I feel the need to explain this because I know that in any case it is best to leave a baby bird alone, especially when its parents are still around and caring for it. I thought about taking the bird back in the night, as I read that you can make your own type of nest and secure it in the tree, and the parents will return to the baby bord when they discover it. However, I know that neighbourhood quite well-well enough to understand that those children would certainly cause it harm if they were to find it on the lawn again. I also am quite wary about returning to someone's property in the night and climbing a ladder on their front lawn. I hope that you can empathize with my dilemma.
I have now had the baby robin for roughly 30 hours. I have tried to do some research on the internet and, in fact, your site has already been helpful to me. I am estimating its age to possibly be around 2 weeks old. It still has some of its baby "fluff" on its head and body, but is mostly feathered. It can perch on branches just fine too, but it definitely can't fly yet. I am feeding it a combonation of Nutri-Start out of a dropper and earthworms from my yard. I am feeding it religiously every two hours, and i can always tell when it is full by its crop, but usually the bird stops eating when it is full anyway. I have it in an old hamster cage, lined with paper towel and surrounded by some grass and twigs from outside, in the hopes that I can make it sort of a natural environment. I constructed a makeshift nest as well, but it doesn't seem to be interested. I have let it out of the cage a couple of times in the yard because i read that at this age it may be a fledgling and it may have already been out of the nest and living on the ground (with its parents' supervision) I leave the cage hanging under a tree during the day and bring it into my warm, quiet room at night, covered with a towel. I hope that so far I am taking the correct steps towrds its success to survival.
Although I am trying my best to educate myself, I am still left with some questions that I am hoping you can help me with. First of all, at what age should i be weaning it from the dropper and what other foods should i begin feeding it? At the moment i have spread some seed along the bottom of the cage, hoping that it will show some interest and begin pecking by itself, but that doesn't seem to be working yet. So if you could give me advice on how to teach it to feed itself, that would be very helpful. I am also wondering whether every two hours is too frequent, and when can i increase time between feedings? Also, how long should I be letting it out of the cage for and how far should i let it roam? Like I said before, I think it may be about 14 days old, but I cannot be sure. If pictures would help, I could probably post some. If there is anything I have left out in providing it with proper care, please feel free to tell me. Thanks very much for your time!

Hi Tara I see this is your first post, so may I welcome you on behalf of the Staff and Moderators.

If this is an American Robin, you will find more information about the diet in the Opus article. I would think it should be on 'solid' foods rather than a liquid diet.

Good luck and let us know the outcome please.

D

Hi Tara, your effort is much appreciated.
Anyway I think you did the wrong way, wouldn´t it be better to explain the children the situation (bird mama is worried about her child) and that any harm is prohibited by law and that you will tell it their parents. Hard to tell, not knowing these childs....
However, good luck!

I have a question! Are you sure you can feed it earthworms? I've only raised starlings and sparrows and any information I found on their diets explicitly said NOT to feed earthworms. Explanations are rare but at this age it's supposedly because the mother feeds it to them regurgitated, after the bacteria has been killed. I wish I had more information for you than that but I'd double check the earthworm diet.

It will learn to fly on its own and feed on its own. The sparrow I currently have started feeding herself yesterday and she's about two weeks old. Originally her food was delivered straight to her crop, then I got her to peck at a spoonful of the mash I made if I waved it in front of her, then she learned to feed from a bowl. That said she is currently yelling at me to feed her anyway!

No one's been able to advise me over my years of raising baby birds so I'm learning as I go. I never got my past birds to eat seed off the bottom of the cage either. What I'm going to try today is to add seed to the mash she already gets and hope she understands she's supposed to eat it. Once she gets used to that I'll wean her to the adult diet with seed.

Definitely do some reading up on raising for release - a lot of people aren't educated in that area and your efforts could easily go to waste if its too tame to survive in the wild. For example, my sparrow's cage is next to a window so she can watch the other birds (she talks to them too) and the other side is covered with a towel so she won't get too used to seeing me let alone my dog or cat. Minimal contact is key (but not too much that they don't feed...) I've also been playing YouTube videos of House Sparrows singing/calling out which she listens intently to and chatters at. Fortunately your baby sounds old enough to recognize her song - pink was a little pink blob when she was delivered to me.

Keep us updated, I'm happy to answer what I can. A word to the wise though...careful about outdoor outings. She could fly away from you and just because she can doesn't mean she should without the protection and teachings of her parents.

Hi Tara:
I tend to agree with Stonechat, that the best thing you could have done was move the robin to a safe place near by and talk with the kids about the importance of protecting our wildlife and native environment. I certainly understand your concern though and am glad you have acted.

Now that you have done so, the next best thing you could do is get this bird to a trained and certified wildlife rehabbilitator to get it back into the wild. Because there are so many opinions out there on how to care for wildlife, and because these birds are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, there are qualified rehabilitators all across the US and Canada that volunteer their time to assist wildlife. Searching the web for a bird rehabbilitator in your area should get you assistance in getting this bird back into the wild.