A story of a baby blackbird
Om Amriteshwaryai Namaha
Around this time last year, I found a baby female blackbird in one of our sheds. I suspect that she was about a week old and have no idea how she found her way into a locked outhouse. After careful investigation, it was clear that her parents were nowhere to be seen and she looked hungry, cold and terrified. This is how a magical and unforgettable three-week adventure of caring for Twitter commenced.
Firstly, to keep Twitter protected from her two feline sisters, who were very interested in babysitting, a cat carrier was adapted as a bird cage and a nest was created out of a small box and kitchen paper. The set up made it very easy to keep the nest clean — if you have never cared for a baby bird, you might be surprised by the amount of waste they produce! (Of course, all the waste was composted and nothing went to actual waste).
For the first few days Twitter was fed every 20–30mins, which over time was reduced to every hour. Our kitchen timer proved to be a very useful tool in the process. Having said that, she was very good at letting us know when she was hungry by chirping away.
Most days started with an early wake up chirp around 5am and ended around 9pm.
As you may already know, to keep a bird calm you can cover a cage with a lightproof cloth. This was a useful trick to know when we wanted her to go to sleep while the lights were still on.
To begin with she was fed a diet of rehydrated cat food, berries, and wet baby food. When young it’s difficult to keep baby birds hydrated as pure water isn’t something that would form part of their natural diet. The combination of the above was as close to regurgitate food that she would get from her birth mother as we could get to, while ensuring sufficient hydration, protein intake and optimal supply of vitamins and minerals. Of course over time, worms and seeds were introduced into the diet. Once the bird starts to peck around worms can be hidden in compost to mimic the natural environment, like in this video of Twitter 3 weeks after finding her. Initially the food was administered with tweezers (rehydrated cat food and berries) and a syringe (wet baby food).
Because of two eager feline babysitters flight practice wasn’t possible in our garden, so we had to be creative! As such, Twitter had plenty of opportunity to practice flying in various locations around the house. (Warning! Each take off tends to be accompanied by creation of more compost material…😊).
Of course, indoor flight practice wasn’t ideal, so every day we drove Twitter to a wild location to allow her the freedom of practicing her flying skills in cat free wild locations. She had a favourite hollowed out tree at the top of the commons, where she used to love hanging out. You can watch a video of her exploring the tree here.
In addition to daily outings, Twitter was partial to a daily bath and it was a joy to watch her! Unfortunately, I haven’t got a recording of her very first bath but this one is a good one too.
Over the weeks that she lived with us, she accompanied us on many adventures, including our outdoor wedding and a drive to Heathrow. I’m sure that not many other blackbirds can share similar stories.
One late afternoon we took Twitter to a park located in the middle of Stroud and unlike any other time, that day she decided to stay in the wild. Although completely natural and what we were hoping for, it felt sad leaving her behind and we were concerned about her survival skills. Fortunately, the following day I was contacted by friends who informed us that Twitter landed in one of the gardens adjacent to the park demanding food from one of the local inhabitants of Stroud’s coop housing. Initially, she used to visit them daily for some extra food but gradually her visits reduced in frequency as she adapted to her natural environment.
It was wonderful to have had this opportunity to come into contact with a wild animal and to witness the process of growth and transformation which is typically hidden from the human eye. It was truly unforgettable and further strengthened our connection with nature.
The InDeed pledge on preserving biodiversity states that when you decide to spend a few minutes or a few hours building a home for bugs or birds, you will get to experience what it can mean for human beings to serve as stewards of nature and discover the magnificence of life on earth. To me, the time with Twitter really showed the magnificence of life on earth.
May you be well, happy, healthy and full of compassion for all beings.
Domi & GreenFriends UK
p.s. There are some very informative videos on YouTube by Mike Franzan that were very insightful on how to look after a nestling https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNe0rW_rw6i1pschzHikLWGblxXK340g3.
