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Any tips on hacking blackbirds back into the wild? (1 Viewer)

M

Merle

Buzz
My boss knocked down a barn the other day, which had inside it a nest of 4 blackbird chicks. They look around 10 days old ish, halfway towards being fledged.

After putting the nest in a hedge somewhere out of the way for an hour, the parents still wouldn't come back to their rather cold offspring. I took them back home, warmedthem up and fed them over the weekend.

I have been feeding them on a diet of mealworms, slugs and beetles and anything else I could find. (Mainly mealworms, although they have eaten about as much as my gecko eats in 3 months!) I have been feeding and cleaning them every hour, and warming them with a heat mat at 35 degrees C. They are getting a vitamin supplement every other day just to tide them over. I am wearing a sock with some eyes painted on it to avoid too much imprinting...

I have put the nest in the area where it was before, and left it and watched at a reasonable distance. Some wagtails came and had a look, but the blackbirds weren't interested. My colleague says it is futile - the parents will have gone to lay another clutch, and it's quite early for blackbirds anyway.

I'm always the person who says, "Put it back in the wild and DON'T hand rear it for crying out loud you idiot!" Now I'm the idiot trying to rear these birds. Someone suggested splitting them up and putting them into other blackbirds' nests, but I have only found nests with eggs in them. Can I put chicks into a nest which has eggs in it? I don't think so, but maybe someone can help me.

Am I doing it right so far? I have only limited experience rearing birds of prey - and they'e semi-altricial, so easy peasy compared to these little bags of food. I am prepared to continue rearing the blackbirds, but how should I teach them to find food? I could dig for worms with the tweezers I use to feed them, but not sure if this will work or not. Has anyone had success with any particular method? Also, since they will most likely (despite my efforts...) end up dual-imprinted, is there a way I can prevent further their imprinting? And what about learning to sing? I have recorded some blackbird song to play to them but I'm not sure whether they can learn it like that.

Anyway! That's an awful lot of questions...but hopefully maybe someone can help!

Buzz
 
Sounds like you're doing a great job.

BTW it'd be worth reminding your boss that he's at risk of prosecution under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 "Take, damage or destroy the nest of any wild bird while it is in use" is a criminal offence. Perhaps he'd like to buy the mealworms!

Good luck and I'm glad there wasn't a Barn Owl in there as well.
 
You've done everything right so far.

A cheaper option for food, to supplement mealworms (not replace them!) would be meaty cat/dogfood with a vit supplement sprinkled on and dipped in water to increase the moisture content.

As for hacking, that's where your work is cut out. First thing is to not let them get too tame - so handle as little as possible, and don't talk to them. Leave them on their own between feeds. They'll 'fledge' well before they look able to, when the tails are about an inch long. They'll then need feeding for another 2 weeks or so, until they're feeding themselves. Once they start climbing out of the nest, they'll need some sort of large cage or aviary. A rabbit run would do. They'll need room to flap and move between 2 perches. Feed them less and less often, but make sure they have access to some water and LIVE food - it is the wriggling prey that instinctively makes them peck at it.

If you can, weigh them (in a bag on a balance, it's easier). A normal weight for a grown blackbird is around 100g. You need to check that they're not losing weight before you let them go, so you know they're feeding themselves. Hence the run so they have access to grass. A few sods of earth will help them learn too - lots of titbits.

You'll have to go for a soft release. One day, early morning in good weather (and a good forecast for next few days), open the run and then let them find their own way out into your garden. Keep leaving food and water out for them until they stop taking it - next to the run. They have to be familiar with the garden before you let them out, so you need to house them in there somehow, otherwise they wont know where to return to.

Be warned, they probably wont last long. The biggest threat to young birds is starvation and predation.

If you can't do all this, and not everyone has the time and resources, then it may be kinder to put the nest back as close as you can to where it was, and hope the parents respond to the begging calls. I know you tried this for a bit, but this time don't go back. We both know the likely outcome, but that's nature, and maybe it will work as the chicks get hungry and call more, or something will get a meal.

It would be illegal to keep the birds, by the way, and not release them.

Don't worry about song - they don't start learning til after they're independent, and will hear other birds if housed in your garden.

Hope that helps.
 
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Thankyou very much! That is most helpful, both of those answers. Have you hacked them back before then? I have no intention of keeping screaming imprinted blackbirds following me around at university, no thankyou! They are not mine to keep in the first place. I am determined that they will die or be wild.

I would rather not feed them dog or cat food - not knowing what they put in it. Mealworms and earthworms are fine. My boss is paying for them.

Blackbirds are a little different from barn owls - the barn would not have been able to be knocked down is there had been barn owls there. My boss knew the blackbirds could be cared for, or he wouldn't have knocked it down.

We have many digital scales, but they're in use every day right now and need to be kept sterile. I think the blackbirds are almost ready to fledge - they are jumping out of their "nest" and crawling around.

My main problem now is that I have to take them to work with me, and while this is all fine and dandy the so-called wildlife experts around me keep peeking at the blackbird chicks. Tch! I have put a sign up saying do not disturb them. More worryingly they have started to beg from me when they're hungry, not the sock puppet.

I shall put up a run in a field or something so they're away from cats. I have lots of fields so shouldn't be too hard. I know of someone who rehabilitated swallows by taking them for walks around the territory and getting them to take mealworms from the air. Eventually they just went off, came back a few times and then disappeared. Maybe they were dead, but I think they were pretty capable of looking after themselves. Perhaps I can do something similar.

Thanks very much!
 
Merle said:
.............Blackbirds are a little different from barn owls - the barn would not have been able to be knocked down is there had been barn owls there. My boss knew the blackbirds could be cared for, or he wouldn't have knocked it down.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I follow where you're coming from.

The Primary legislation affecting wild birds in England, Scotland and Wales is the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended). In January 2001 the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (CRoW) included amendments, which strengthened the law in England and Wales. The basic principle of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended) is that all wild birds, their nests and eggs, are protected by law and some rare species are afforded special protection (schedule 1 listed species incl. Barn Owls). Whilst there are certain exemptions to this notably in respect of wildfowl, game birds and various species that may cause damage the Blackbird is not amongst them.

Your boss has committed an offence and if he knew the nest was there before demolishing the barn I hope he's prosecuted. Unfortunately throughout the country there are many property developers who routinely demolish old buildings and replace them with flats, apartments etc. Whilst the loss of a single blackbirds nest is relatively insignificant repeated nationwide over many years it could easily become a different story. Who'd have thought 20 years ago the House Sparrows would ever end up on the Red List ?

Whilst I wish you well and really hope you're successful please be aware that despite the best of intentions having in one's possession or control any wild bird, dead or alive, or any part of a wild bird, which has been taken in contravention of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended) or the Protection of Birds Act 1954 is also a criminal offence.

Good luck
 
Thankyou very much for being completely on my tail - perhaps I should have left them to the crows.

What is legal is not necessarily the same as what is right. A twelve year old can legally buy a barn owl as a pet - this is not right. My boss was not aware of the blackbird nest, it was found later on - he has not committed an offence, but by rearing them I am comitting an offence. Leaving them out in the cold to die of hypothermia would not be an offence. Thanks for clarifying!
 
The law often makes no sense whatsoever, anyone remember that woman who had a grey squirrel stuck inside her bird feeder, and was prosecuted for freeing it so that her birds could feed? Anyway, considering the story so far, and the fact you're trying to raise them as wild birds for release I doubt theres any chance of this ever getting to court.

Considering the sorry state of British wildlife, I hope you carry on and try raise them to maturity. There's an awesome thread somewhere, by Mannix I think, where he raised two swift chicks that fledged and left as fullgrown healthy adult birds. Well worth a read, if you can find it!
 
Lol really? Prosecuted for FREEING it? I'm trying to raise them to maturity. They will probably die in the hack pen I have built for them, but if they were in the wild they would probably die anyway. At least they'll have a chance.

I'll try to look for that thread now. If it can be done with swifts, it can be done with anything surely. They are such odd birds.

I built a hack pen for them. It's like a gamekeeper's partridge pen, with lots of hiding places but it isn't too high off the ground. I did want it higher but it wasn't really practical. When they fledge I'll put them in there for a day, then see what happens. If they're still there and all fine I'll leave them in all the time then one day open it up and let them gradually leave the hack pen. I've hacked birds of prey back to the wild before that had been "rescued" in the same way that I've "rescued" these blackbirds, so hopefully it'll work in a similar way.

They are getting to have many more feathersnow and one has started to perch - although it can't stand properly it keeps wrapping its toes around my fingers when I'm cleaning it. It seems to want to explore, not sit in the nest. I will move them to a parrot cage tonight, see if they want to wander around a bit more.

Yesterday I took them out on the grass for a bit and put an earthworm next to them. They showed a little interest and clambered about for a bit and then all huddled together because they were cold. I'm trying to get some sunlight to them.
 
Yeah, she was done for freeing it cos its vermin and therefore once caught has to be destroyed... Never mind the fact that by leaving it she condemned it to a long drawn out (and smelly) death while her birds were down one food supply!

Good luck with the black birds. Post some photos...:)
 
James said:
The law often makes no sense whatsoever, anyone remember that woman who had a grey squirrel stuck inside her bird feeder, and was prosecuted for freeing it so that her birds could feed? Anyway, considering the story so far, and the fact you're trying to raise them as wild birds for release I doubt theres any chance of this ever getting to court.
Click to expand...

Merle said:
Lol really? Prosecuted for FREEING it? I'm trying to raise them to maturity.
Click to expand...

Er .. are there some legal wires being crossed here! Blackbird aren't vermin!
You sound as if you are doing a grand job Merle ... if your boss was unaware that the Blackbirds were nesting, there is no infringement of the W&CA. If you release the Blackbirds, there is no infringement of the W&CA. If you don't release the Blackbirds when they are ready you are breaking the law. Any bird of a species that is resident in or is a visitor to the European Territory of any member state in a wild state may only be kept in captivity if it has been captive bred.

Good luck with them!

BTW: If your boss found the blackbird nest but then continued to demolish the barn requiring the deliberate removal of the nest as opposed to accidentally destroying it, then he HAS committed an offence. The demolition should not have proceeded until the chicks had fledged, regardless of the fact Barn Owls nest in Barns and Blackbirds generally don't!
 
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Many years ago I raised a song thrush chick that i found in a friends hedge, the nest had fallen in wet weather and two dead siblings were beside it, and this one, barely getting the quills for its featheres was close to going out too. I took it home and kept it in a budgerigar cage in the remains of the old nest. I knew nothing of wildlife law and thought I was doing the right thing, I was only about 11 yrs old.

I took it to school with me and the teachers let me dig for worms in the school vegetable patch and feed it during class!

After a while it grew and feathered up and took to hopping around the house and begging from anyone who came near it, we even took it on holiday to Mablethorpe with us for a fortnight and it went everywhere with me. It used to sit on the edge of my dinner palte and beg whilst I was eating my dinner! It seemed to have a liking for baked beans?!

The "grown ups" were worried about it fending for itself but after using the rabbit run in the garden for a week or so and leaving out mealworms and worms dug from the garden, whilst still feeding it now and again when it begged, it gradually seemed as though it was just "ready" to go. It wasn't begging, picking up its own food, the worms in the grass were taken by it even though we had been putting out mealworms and worms, but less and less as it was witnessed to scavenge for itself.

It was sheparded on sorties around the garden during this time and then one day on one of these sorties, off it went. Flew up onto the roof and cleared off into the conifers a few gardens away. saw it on and off for the rest of the summer in the garden, we knew it was "ours" beacuse when it came in the garden it would be quite happy to come up close to the french doors when we were in and out into the back garden to pick up morsels put out by us.

Any way, next spring a song thrush nested in our garden, in the conifers which went right up to the glass of our french windows, about a foot away so we could see into the tree and just make out the nest. It nested three times in different trees during that spring, the last brood fledging late July. Maybe it was the same one? Maybe a coincidence? I know which one makes me smile the most!

Good luck and hope you are succesful.
 
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I used to work for a rescue centre - I have reared young birds before, so I know about the Tiggy Winkles people, but thanks anyway for the link. I feel fully capable of hacking them back into the wild now that I have got some advice from you guys as well - I'll go through the motions anyway, even though they will probably die.

It's not too good an idea to raise a young bird by itself, it will probably not nest in the wild unless you imprint it on a song thrush rather than a human (it wil want to mate with humans). Although, song thrushes may be more instinctive rather than intelligent, I don't know. I just know that if you do that with owls you have no chance. Still, raising baby birds at the age of 11 - that's pretty impressive! I take my hat off to you. I think most 11 year olds these days would try to feed it crisps and bubble gum.

I don't want to talk about the law any more - it gives me a headache. It' pretty irrelevant anyway, I'm not going to just put them out and let them die slowly, no matter who thinks I should.

The blackbirds are now in a big parrot cage, they sometimes go out of the nest to walk around but they're not quite branching yet. I started to feed them 4 times a day yesterday, but since then they have lost weight so I am going back to feeding them almost hourly. I'm taking them outside as well so that they get to know their surroundings, and it won't be such a shock when they go into the hack pen. I think it's good for them to get some vitamin D too, although I have been giving them cod liver oil occasionally. Much better for them to get it from sunlight instead, I think.

I'm also trying to wean them slowly - ie. get them to feed themselves. This is proving difficult at the moment, they just want me to keep shoving stuff down their throats, but soon they'll get to the stage where they want to feed themselves.

Thanks for the advice and anecdotes - keep em coming!
 
ANdy5551 said:
Any way, next spring a song thrush nested in our garden, in the conifers which went right up to the glass of our french windows, about a foot away so we could see into the tree and just make out the nest. It nested three times in different trees during that spring, the last brood fledging late July. Maybe it was the same one? Maybe a coincidence? I know which one makes me smile the most!

Good luck and hope you are succesful.
Click to expand...

wont be the same one - birds don't nest in the territory they were reared in, they disperse a bit to avoid genetic issues (e.g. if two siblings return to breed in their natal territory). More likely to be the same parents though.
 
Poecile said:
wont be the same one - birds don't nest in the territory they were reared in, they disperse a bit to avoid genetic issues (e.g. if two siblings return to breed in their natal territory). More likely to be the same parents though.
Click to expand...

You're runing his memories there...:)
 
ikw101 said:
I'm not sure I follow where you're coming from.

The Primary legislation affecting wild birds in England, Scotland and Wales is the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended). In January 2001 the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (CRoW) included amendments, which strengthened the law in England and Wales. The basic principle of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended) is that all wild birds, their nests and eggs, are protected by law and some rare species are afforded special protection (schedule 1 listed species incl. Barn Owls). Whilst there are certain exemptions to this notably in respect of wildfowl, game birds and various species that may cause damage the Blackbird is not amongst them.

Your boss has committed an offence and if he knew the nest was there before demolishing the barn I hope he's prosecuted. Unfortunately throughout the country there are many property developers who routinely demolish old buildings and replace them with flats, apartments etc. Whilst the loss of a single blackbirds nest is relatively insignificant repeated nationwide over many years it could easily become a different story. Who'd have thought 20 years ago the House Sparrows would ever end up on the Red List ?

Whilst I wish you well and really hope you're successful please be aware that despite the best of intentions having in one's possession or control any wild bird, dead or alive, or any part of a wild bird, which has been taken in contravention of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended) or the Protection of Birds Act 1954 is also a criminal offence.

Good luck
Click to expand...


So sorry to hijack this thread but please could you answer a simple question;
Swift and swallow nests on houses, when people re-paint what is the situation - go around?
Sadly I do not have any nests on the outside of the house, luckily they are in the garage and we are chuffed to have them there, but I am aware of a situation where a nest has been removed, during the winter.
Please forgive me for the intrusion.

Sounds like you are doing a brilliant job with those blackbirds, sometimes things happen and you have to trust your instincts and get on with it, Lucky birds.
 
socksitis said:
So sorry to hijack this thread but please could you answer a simple question;
Swift and swallow nests on houses, when people re-paint what is the situation - go around?
Sadly I do not have any nests on the outside of the house, luckily they are in the garage and we are chuffed to have them there, but I am aware of a situation where a nest has been removed, during the winter.
Please forgive me for the intrusion.

I will still remeber it as "my song thrush";) so no worries.

Laws regarding Housemartin/swallow nests is that if they are removed outside of the breeding season, i.e. when they are not in use and the birds are no longer in the country, they can be removed. If the birds are in the process of building or using the nest, even for roosting during the breeding season then they must be left alone. I know people don't like the mess the birds make but a dropping board under the nest is cheap, easy and prevents the mess whilst still allowing the nest to be used. Check on news reports online(google it) to see people are getting prosecuted for destroying these nests whilst either roofing/guttering/fascias/soffits or just to stop the mess.

Personally they are my favourites due to the proximity and carefree way they nest so close to us and don't mind people watching as they are so used to it. I have house martin boxes up to try and encourage them and would put up with whatever mess they cared to make for the priviledge of their nests on my house.

Anyone who damages/destroys/diturbs their nests or that of any bird deserves all they get.
Click to expand...
 
Just to reinforce the specifics, here is a small snippit from the National Wildlife Crime Unit Website;

"it is illegal to take or destroy the egg of any wild bird, to destroy a nest in use, or to possess an egg taken in contravention of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981. "
 
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Can we PLEASE stop talking about the law here! Lol it really doesn't matter!

I'm down to 3 chicks now (probably 2 soon). The cock bird has started trying to fly and he's flown a little way already. They are all over the place, hopping about and I take them outside sometimes to feed them and show them how to dig for worms. It's really difficult to wean them, they don't seem to want to get the worms themselves but expect it to come to them. I am working on it, that is the thing that worries me the most.

Yesterday I saw 2 adult blackbirds and they were interested in the babies. So I let them have a look while I hid behind a rock. They seemed really interested and even alarmed when I came closer to the chicks. A sparrowhawk swooped down and got a chick, and an adult blackbird chased it off - so although that means there are only 3 left, I think it's a good sign that that pair of blackbirds might accept my youngsters. But I don't know, it's probably better to just keep trying but stay quite close.

One of the hens has a bad leg - she doesn't walk on it but keeps it tucked up all the time and uses her wing to balance. I don't know what it is. I've kept them in a nest all the time, so it's not a splayed leg. I've given them sunlight and cod liver oil and vitamins, so it's not badly grown. It might be genetic or just a weird mutation. Anyhow, I'm going to ask the experts I work with today and if it can't be healed I'll just have to euthanise it.

It's good to have the chicks hopping around and exploring their environment. Amazing how much they've grown! Thanks everyone for your support.
 
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