"Rescued" baby bird identification (1 Viewer)

[Joecool3]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kXLzphoRIoklLE_iidxP4ul5BtfRv5j2/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kYQh1Yge-4sUMmVAIIN973zxzeFXG8nk/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kaYB1gtrvPo8OwkLjoQc0yWazHNWLYPn/view?usp=drivesdk

Central Alabama

I found this baby below its nest, a ten-foot drop, right in the middle of an apartment stairway. Looked practically motionless but was alive. Peeped very quietly. I relocated it off the stairs onto the ground right below, but no longer on a footpath. Next morning, today, it had moved 6 inches from where I had placed it (and from where it decided to defecate). Ants were crawling in the soil right around it and it seemed to be sluggishly fending them off with its wings. The nest has been regularly inhabited by what has seemed to be the same (unknown) species. Today, it had maybe 3 other chicks in it, which seemed to look a little more mature than the one that fell. It should not have fallen or jumped with still-shut eyes (up to 5 days old?); maybe it got too crammed up there?

I figured it would be better off in (or at least near the nest, which was just too high for me to reach, so I made a little extension platform with small side rails on which I placed the bird, and thereby lifted him up, stuck right next to the nest. The parents are feeding the other 3(?) babies in the nest, but I have not seen whether they have attended to the baby sitting on my platform. I assume that location is better than in the dirt with ants (and local neighborhood cats). But you tell me.

Also, what kind of bird did I find?

I appreciate any input.

- J

 

[delia todd]

Hi Joe 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. So you seem to have done the right things so far. Please let us know how it goes.

Sorry I can't help with the ID, I find birds this age extremely difficult, but I'm sure someone from the States will be along before too long to help you.

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

 

[KC Foggin]

Welcome aboard Joe and enjoy!

Sorry, I can't help you with this juvie.

 

[Kits]

Welcome to Birdforum. I hope you enjoy your visits.

 

[Joecool3]

Thanks for the welcomes.
The baby bird appears to have been accepted, but I can't say the same for my makeshift nest-on-a-stick; it seems that they knocked it off their nesting ledge! In other words, I found my makeshift baby bird platform fallen onto the stairs, and no baby bird fallen with it. Kinda like rock-a-by-baby except, down will go cradle, no baby in sight.

In other related news, when I put the extend-o-nest-reacher-o-matic in place, I noticed hundreds of black mites traveling to and fro, as cars on an interstate, along the ridge where the birds nested, with their point of attraction seeming to be the nest. Got a few on my hands. Tried to goosh em, then went and washed hands and arms with dish soap. A quick internet search bird mites produced several grotesque pictures and descriptions of what these mites appeared to be. Seems pretty nasty, but I'd guess that's typical for your average wild birds. Will those mites end up eating the birds to death, or do the birds just itch and scratch their whole lives, or can they just kinda pick them out of their skin?
(This encounter has me heavily swayed toward a newfound resolve to never touch any bird - and more convincingly than the never touch a baby bird because its parents will abandon it myth).