The Bird Who Can’t Fly – Part One

I do not have a pet. I do not really consider myself as an animal lover. I might find them cute but I can not take care of them (especially dogs and cats). I always think that they will bite me! I think fish and birds are fine. Just don’t make me touch them.

Yesterday, my husband noticed a gray and yellow baby bird in our backyard. It was on the same spot for a very long time. We were thinking the bird was hurt and it can’t fly. We called in our kids to help us “rescue” the baby bird. True enough, it can’t fly and it looked sick/weak. So we put him in our little yellow box, gave it water and rice. It was almost night-time and we did not want to leave it there alone. We wanted to keep it safe from its predators (particularly rat and opossum).

 

After a while, we heard a lot of “tweets”. We saw two big birds of the same kind. We were thinking that it’s the parents. And on one of the plants another baby bird fell. Same with the previous one, it did not know how to fly. We took it and placed him with the other baby bird in the yellow box. They had to stay with us for a night. We put a protective cover on the box and surrounded it with blankets so they won’t get cold in the night.

Early after breakfast, we checked if the birds were strong enough to fly. The other one kept moving and looked liked it was ready to fly. As I opened the cover, it flew quickly and all up on the tree. It looked like it can fly although not too high. On the other hand, the other one just stayed in the box. It did not move. Guess it was not ready to go out and fly.

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At lunch time, I checked if the bird was ready. When I opened the cover, it jumped out and slowly flew up on the green onion leaves. It stayed there for more than an hour. I kept my eye on it because I think it can’t fly yet. I was scared that a predator will get him for lunch.

I tried to put him back in the box but I was scared. It did not like it. It was threatened whenever I tried to. I wore my gloves but I really get scared when it tries to peck me!!! So I had to wait for a while. Then from afar I witnessed something great. A big yellow bird  swiftly flew by the baby bird and placed something in its mouth. The mommy bird fed its baby! It was really amazing. I was debating myself if I should put it back in the box or just leave it there by itself. At least it’s close to its mom or dad and they can see him.

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There was something in me that did not want to. I was afraid that it will be helpless when a hungry animal comes. So just right in time, I saw a big rat running close to where the bird was. I had to make sounds to shoo it away! I felt so terrible. I was scared to find out what happened. It was my nightmare. My baby looked for the bird. She said it’s gone. I was feeling awful. Then we heard a tweet. We found it on the other plant nearby. Maybe it was able to escape. Although I was scared, I hurriedly got the gloves and a little stick to help me put it in the box. I had to do it to keep it safe!

I felt good that I did it! Now he is again safe in the yellow box. We will try again later to see if he can fly. If not, it has to stay for another night. We can see its mom/dad just flying around lingering in the backyard. Maybe they’re keeping an eye on their baby. I hope they understand that we are just keeping their baby until its strong enough to go back into their wings.