Baby starling (1 Viewer)

[lbesch]

Hello, my name is Lydia and I've joined the forum in the hopes of getting some advice. I've found myself with a baby starling (and before everyone says he should have been put back in his nest... I work in a veterinary hospital and a couple of well meaning people found him on the sidewalk near their job and brought him to us, so at that point there was little chance of getting him back and locating the nest). Anyhow I'm not sure exactly how old he is, he is just starting to hop around on his own. His feathers have just started to fill in. I did some reading about imprinting and some articles stated that even if I cover myself, being without birds of his own kind will leave him unable to function in the wild. Can someone tell me if this is true or a myth?

 

[delia todd]

Hi Lydia and a warm welcome to you from all the Staff and Moderators. We have some general guidelines here for the care of injured and baby birds. If you could find a local rehab centre near you they've likely got other birds in which need help. Ultimate release is often much easier if they're with other birds. It sounds as if he's approaching fledging age, but his wings need to have feathers rather than down for this to happen.

I'm sure you will enjoy it here and I look forward to hearing your news.

Ah! Just had a thought (if you're correct on it being a Common Starling), and you might like to research this. It's possible your state laws state that you can't release them into the wild as they're an introduced species. This would mean that the rehab centre would put them to sleep. Sorry.