By
ecoRI News staff
If a
baby bird doesn’t have feathers and you can reach the nest, put it back. Your
touch will not cause the mother to abandon the baby. (Audubon Society of R.I.)
“There are some things we can set the yearly clock by,” Audubon
Society of Rhode Island refuge manager and naturalist Kim Calcagno says. Each
winter, she fields scores of phone calls about weak and emaciated water birds
such as Canada geese, loons, grebes and ducks. This past winter, the calls came
through in the hundreds, but her work is far from over.
Throughout spring and summer, when people spot baby birds outside
of their nests, Calcagno’s phone keeps ringing. Baby birds are often at the
mercy of particularly persistent myths. Some people believe, for instance, that
a baby bird can’t be reunited with its parents if it’s fallen out of a nest.
Not true.
Most people don’t know that raising baby birds is highly
specialized and demanding. Baby birds need to be fed every 15 minutes from dawn
until dusk. Calcagno, who has spent time rehabilitating baby birds, describes
the experience as enough to make a person ill from exhaustion. When it comes to
raising healthy nestlings, there is no replacement for devoted parents and a
community of birds, she says.
When it comes to situations where intervention is warranted,
however, choosing how and when to intervene can be complicated. There is no simple
set of rules to follow. That’s why the Audubon Society urges people to call an
expert before trying to help a bird or animal that appears to be injured or
orphaned. The truth is, plenty of supposed “rescue missions” carried out by
non-experts are well intentioned but misguided, and ultimately harmful to
wildlife.
Sometimes it’s helpful to intervene, but just as often, nature
should be left to its own, at times unforgiving, ways.
An expert should always be consulted before intervening with
wildlife. Here are a few tips, courtesy of the Audubon
Society:
Before intervening in any way with an animal that appears to
be injured or orphaned, monitor it from a distance and make some careful
observations: What type of animal is it? If you’re unsure of the species, note
the size, shape and markings on the animal. Is it an adult or a baby? Where is
it located?
Did you see it moving? If it’s not moving, how long has it been in
the same spot? Has anyone touched the animal? What obvious injuries do you see?
If known, what is the reason for the injury?
Call the Audubon Society of Rhode Island at 401-949-5454 or
the Wildlife Rehabilitators Association of Rhode Island 401-294-6363.
During normal hours of operation, injured animals may be brought to the
Wildlife Rehabilitators Association, 240 Shermantown Road in Saunderstown.
Don’t leave animals if the clinic is closed. (The Audubon Society isn’t
licensed to accept injured wildlife.)
Here are the answers, courtesy of the Audubon Society, to some
fairly common situations:
A baby bird out of its nest, with no visible injuries: If the
bird doesn’t have feathers and you can reach the nest, put it back. Your touch
will not cause the mother to abandon the baby. If you can’t reach the nest,
Calcagno advises tacking a small basket — such as a pint-sized strawberry basket
— to the tree, or as close to the nest as possible, and placing the baby bird
gently in the basket.
If the bird has feathers, leave it alone and monitor it.
Juvenile birds that appear to be alone and incapable of flight aren’t
necessarily injured or abandoned. A fledgling will hop around on the ground for
a while before it learns to fly, and you may notice its parents coming around
every 45 minutes or so to feed it. In the meantime, the best thing is to leave
the bird alone and not attract the attention of predators to it.
An injured or orphaned raccoon, skunk, bat, fox or woodchuck:
Never touch these animals. Secure all pets indoors. Keep children away. These
are rabies vector species. Call the Rhode Island Department of Environmental
Management at 401-222-3070 or your animal control officer. If a person has
skin-to-fur contact with these animals, the person must be vaccinated and the
animal must be euthanized.
A fawn alone in the bushes, or at the edge of the woods,
calling out: Don’t attempt to move the fawn, and monitor it from at least 40
feet away. Note how long the fawn been calling for its mother. A mother deer
will leave her fawns to go off and forage. Since her babies are born without a
scent, they may remain undetected and the mother expects to find them in the
same place when she returns. If the fawn is up on its feet and running around,
is visibly distressed or injured, or has been calling for a half-hour or more,
call the Wildlife Rehabilitators Association.
A rabbit nest that seems abandoned: It’s best to observe this
nest from a distance and not draw attention to it. Chances are, that’s exactly
what the mother of the young rabbits has in mind. She’ll only return to the
nest briefly at dawn and at dusk. If she sat on the nest for any length of time,
her presence would be a red flag to predators.
An orphaned baby squirrel, bird or rabbit: Don’t feed the
animal or bring it into your home. Call the Wildlife Rehabilitators Association
or Audubon Society immediately. Mere hours can mean the difference between a
relatively healthy baby animal and one that has suffered so much that it can’t
be saved.
