SEASON OF BABY BIRDS (6/21/02)

On this first day of summer, we are well into the season when baby birds fledge — a desperate time of survival for many young birds. Mother Nature, however, has a plan that works. Most parents nurture more eggs and young than can ever be expected to reach maturity. Think about it. If the four eggs that most robins lay lived to become adults, we’d all be crowded out by robins. (It may seem like we are at times, but we on Cape Cod just happen to be in a favored spot for robins.)

One of the best ways, in fact, to enjoy young birds is to keep your feeders going all summer. While all baby birds need protein while they are in the fast-growth stage in the nest, once they have fledged, they tend to eat what their parents eat. In the case of cardinals, that’s seeds.

In the fall they’ll gladly eat wild seeds, but right now those we provide are quick and easy food. I’ve said it many times before, but I believe those of us who feed birds 12 months of the year have a great many more birds nesting on or near our property than those who do not. A steady supply of food encourages birds to stay and raise families.

Today I watched as two young Carolina wrens waited for mom or pop to feed them some delicious white stuff that you and I call suet. To keep suet from melting and going rancid in hot weather, use the commercially rendered suet cakes, available in some supermarkets and stores that cater to bird watchers’ needs. Our suet feeders are never without either a downy or hairy woodpecker on them. Your woodpeckers, chickadees and wrens will repay you for keeping a supply of suet on hand by bringing their babies — your next generation of customers — by for a treat. One of our catbirds also has a real hankering for our suet, possibly because it has berries mixed in with it.

The biggest issue about baby birds in the spring, though, concerns those that you may find on the ground in your yard. Despite how helpless such a bird may seem, chances are very great that this is not an orphaned bird but rather is one that has just fledged and whose parents are keeping an eye on it. When parents leave their young, they often command them to stay still, so what you have encountered may not be a lost or abandoned bird but one that is beautifully trained and that is minding its elders. The only thing you should do is make sure that you keep animals and children away from the area. The parents will do the rest.

However, if the bird has no feathers, it my have fallen out of its nest. Try to restore it to its nest. When that is impossible, make a substitute nest by lining a small box like one that holds berries or Kleenex® with shredded newspaper and tying it in place at the top of a bush or on a low branch of a tree. Forget old wives' tales that if a baby bird is handled by humans, the parents won't have anything more to do with it. On the contrary, parent birds will respond to the cries of the baby and will continue to care for it.

If the baby bird has been brought by a cat or dog from somewhere else, then I would say you and the bird would be best served if you just let it die. I know that sounds hard hearted, but you should know that it is against the law to possess any wild bird — except a pigeon, starling or house sparrow — for any reason, even to nurse it back to health, unless you have a license.

Baby birds need a lot of care, and most people who take in young birds believe they are improving the bird's chances for survival, but it is almost impossible for people to provide growing young birds with conditions which duplicate the ones the natural parents provide. If you cannot return an unfeathered bird to its nest or make a substitute nest for it, your only other option is to take it to a local rehabilitator. On the Cape, WILD CARE in Brewster is the place to go.

GRAPHIC: Robin and baby, photo courtesy of Joyce Leary, Yarmouth