Found baby bird (sparrow?) in fireplace

[dogmelissa]

If this is in the wrong forum, moderators please move.

I get home from a training session with my dog and turn on the computer to check my email, and hear this funny scrabbling noise. Sounds strangely like a bird in my fireplace chimney. So I get a flashlight and go open the flue. Sure enough, 2 birds fall out. One is already dead (I'm thinking a few days), the other is still alive and scares the crap out of me by fluttering around--even though I suspected this it's still scary!! So I got an ice cream pail (all I had) and picked up the live bird with a newspaper and put him in it. Took it outside and put it in the shade. I don't know if it can fly, I didn't want to handle it. Will it die? It was covered in soot. I don't know if it's parents nested in there; this was the first noise I'd heard from the chimney all year and there was nothing else that fell other than the birds. What should I do?

One of my cats killed a baby sparrow this morning; a stray cat knocked their bird house off the fence and the parents moved them into a nearby tree, but they had no nest in there and I guess one fell out and my cat got him. He's not a hunter and I know he didn't catch this one. I don't want there to be any more death in my house, so I don't want to lose this little birdie, but I don't know what to do with him.

Suggestions?

Melissa

[LibbyP]

You don't have to worry about handling baby birds per say as they don't have noses to smell you on the babies, does it have feathers, or is it naked? I would wipe clean gently with just some warm water, then put it back outside near a tree, it will cry out to the parents and they will find it to feed it on the ground if it cannot fly, if it is raining at your house(it is here) don't worry so much about cleaning it off as the rain will do that, take it out of the pail, it'll find shelter by itself on a low branch etc ... good luck

[Maya]

Hi! I just posted some information in Baby seagull that might be helpful. Good luck.

[edit] Actually if you don't think he can make it on his own now maybe there is a wild life rescue
in your area that can help. Also I had no idea about this until this morning but it could be bad to give a bird water even if it is really dehydrated so be sure to get some expert advice before you do anything. Good luck!!!

[dogmelissa]

The baby bird has feathers, and looks like it's probably old enough to start to learn how to fly. If it's a sparrow (I think it is) it's probably about 80% of it's parent's size.

It's not raining here, so I will go outside and wash the soot off him.

I don't want to put him on the ground because my cat is outside and he killed a baby bird this morning. There are also stray cats around which I'm sure will do the same thing. Maybe I can get a box or container that's shallow so he can get out to fly if needed but will stay in the tree.

Wildlife rescue won't do anything about sparrows, or other "common" birds. At least not here. The survival rate of these birds is pretty good considering the number of threats--and the loss of one isn't going to affect their numbers. They are plentiful around here. Will check the seagull post, though.

Thanks,
Melissa

Edited to add; my cat has been inside (it's hot out) and I just went out to check on the baby. Found him on the ground (not in the bucket) about 5' away from the bucket, dead. Not sure if the fall out of the chimney hurt him (there was no sign of a nest, just one live & one dead bird), or if the soot killed him, but he is dead. Poor birdies.

[Maya]

That is sad

[edit] That's to bad they descriminate against the "common birds" Our shelter here even helps the non native squirrels. At least it's tragic little life is resting now. It sounds like there wasn't much you could do.