I was recalling some of the fun nature study things we’d done when the kids were younger. The monarch butterflies from Insect Lore were a big hit and it was a fun and sad day when we released the pretty things. Monarchs were a stepping stone to another project our daughter took on the following year, caring for baby birds from Alaska Bird Treatment and Learning Center (Bird TLC).
Bird TLC cares for injured or abandoned birds and needs volunteers to help. Springtime brings in lots of baby birds whose nests were corrupted or abandoned. Jen wanted to try raising some. We completed the morning-long training class and waited for the call. It came several weeks later asking if we could take in a pair of baby robins. These birds were very tiny and had only a few pin feathers; she named them Wilbur and Orville. They came with a recipe for baby bird food which is a combination of dog food, vitamins, nutritional supplements and monkey chow. Bird TLC provided the latter ingredient; good thing, too. Where would I shop for monkey chow?
Wilbur and Orville lived in a styrofoam bowl in Jen’s room. Feeding is done by hand with a syringe for the early days until they can pick up food themselves. She woke every two hours for the first several nights to feed them and clean them. They thrived! Soon we got a 2nd call asking to take one more robin. Then a red poll. They outgrew their little bowls very quickly, graduating to a laundry basket then to a cage outside until they were fully fledged. She cared for all of them and released them into the backyard when they were ready. It was a great learning experience and lots of fun.
The last birds that summer were a pair of herring gull chicks. Oh my! These gulls were always hungry, get very big and very messy and noisy and it seemed like they would never fly away. Some people love to care for the gulls…not us.
Raising baby birds was a great experience for our family. If your kids are animal lovers and willing to take on the responsibility I can highly recommend this project. Check around for a bird rescue organization in your area. It helped us to plan ahead for spring.
I enjoyed this post! I like using nature as a teaching tool. In my classroom I used a worm compost system that we built. I used it to teach biology, ecology, earth science, reading, math and English. My students loved it!
Interesting post. I did not know these types of things were available. I guess I thought that most recovery efforts were for endangered birds they would never let someone like me just load up in the car to have a go at raising!
There is an easy hoop to jump through. Migratory birds like songbirds are federally protected. Bird TLC has a license to care for both protected and endangered birds. We had to become members of Bird TLC to be covered by their license and participate in the baby bird program. I think it was 20 bucks.
They do take in eagles and stellar eiders and other endangered or formerly endangered species. These kinds of birds are not entrusted to rookies like us. We’d have to put in a lot of years to care for a bald eagle.
I know this question really has nothing to do with this subject but me and my little sister have fed our baby birds noodles that we are raising and they are growing up just fine.
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