Fledgling Blackbird in trouble (1 Viewer)

Kspoon · Sep 8, 2018

Hi we have had a fledgling blackbird in our garden for about 3 days.

Have kept our distance and kept a watch. It doesn't appear parents are close by as no noise and no spotting and the fledgling isn't calling.

Today came home and the fledgling was in the middle of our lawn and laying down, just it's head moving. It had a few flies settling on it but wasnt moving them off.

I watched for a while and no parents are close by. I scooped it up and put in a box with hay. It's beak was dirty and one eye had a small white feather stuck in on, which again it was making no effort to shift.

I moved it in the box and made a safe area using our hedgehog house and left water, seeds, cut up grapes, mealworm and pellets in the area.

It is laying down still, I've seen it eating some grapes, however flies are landing on it and it's not trying to get them off.

What do you think I should do. I haven't sealed its exit completely but allowed it to hide in the hedgehog house if need be. Just a bit concerned about the flies on it, seems like a bad situation.
Cheers
K

Farnboro John · Sep 8, 2018

Kspoon said:
Hi we have had a fledgling blackbird in our garden for about 3 days.

Have kept our distance and kept a watch. It doesn't appear parents are close by as no noise and no spotting and the fledgling isn't calling.

Today came home and the fledgling was in the middle of our lawn and laying down, just it's head moving. It had a few flies settling on it but wasnt moving them off.

I watched for a while and no parents are close by. I scooped it up and put in a box with hay. It's beak was dirty and one eye had a small white feather stuck in on, which again it was making no effort to shift.

I moved it in the box and made a safe area using our hedgehog house and left water, seeds, cut up grapes, mealworm and pellets in the area.

It is laying down still, I've seen it eating some grapes, however flies are landing on it and it's not trying to get them off.

What do you think I should do. I haven't sealed its exit completely but allowed it to hide in the hedgehog house if need be. Just a bit concerned about the flies on it, seems like a bad situation.
Cheers
K

Do nothing. Let nature take its course. Its not your responsibility to do anything: it won't make any difference to the Blackbird population. If you remove it in any way you will deprive some predator of a meal, which would be unkind.

John

ChrisKten · Sep 8, 2018

Well it wasn't your responsibility, but it is now that you've intervened. If it's as sick as you think it is, it probably won't last the night, so there's little you can do except let it die in peace. IME, there's more chance of someone's pet Cat torturing it before a Sparrowhawk notices it (unless one has been watching it), but that mostly depends on your environment.

Just give it access to water and see what the morning brings... I suspect it will be dead.

There's nothing wrong with caring about Wildlife, but sometimes the right thing to do is just observe... although it takes most people years to realise this. Years ago, I saved a sick Pigeon from a Sparrowhawk - the Pigeon died anyway - later that same Sparrowhawk returned and killed a healthy Collared Dove.

Fledgling Blackbird in trouble (1 Viewer)

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Kspoon

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It's true, I quite like Pigeons

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