Starling fledgling what to do

Hi 

2 weeks ago today we found a starling nestling near our bird feeder, half feathered, directly where the crows in our garden come and we get a lot, not directly near a tree and no parents in sight, tried sticking it in plant pot hanging in a tree but it fell out, stuck it in my shed and it has been feeding for last two weeks, lively has feathers, been taking it out in the garden couple of times a day sits on my hand and shoulder, flutters but does not fly but must be flying a bit in my shed it is big and gets to the top ledges inside. flaps both wings, lively but I have noticed its left eye sometimes does not open properly,  when i take it in the garden it hops away ok to shelter and wants feeding

I really want to leave it in the garden and hope it flies away, but have no idea how to proceed now, any ideas please.

  • Hi sorry nobody has replied...its that time of year where many fledglings get wrongly picked up just for being on the ground which is actually a natural place for them to be until they get used to their wings! Yours does sound like it was out the nest too soon though..my only suggestion is to try click on the link below to try find a rescue centre near you for some help

    helpwildlife.co.uk/.../

    Would be good to hear how you get on
  • Hi

    Thanks for your help I did try a few numbers but only got answerphones and no one rang me back,

    Any way she was a blackbird I realised when watching adult starlings in my garden and unfortunately she is now dead, I did read that Blackbirds fledge at 13-14 days and we had had her for 17 days and she must have been a week old when we found her, This morning she flew out of my shed and fed hopped into the hedge row and I left her there, Fed her after 3 hours fine, then my wife told me about half hour after that she was lying headless by the hedge. I am guessing a corvid as we get a lot, dam shame just an innocent, I would like to know though how she got so far away from trees as a nestling, would her parents have taken her from the nest and abandoned her?
  • Sorry just catching up with posts.....oh it was a BB and not a starling. BB are unable to fly for the 1st week or so of leaving the nest and continue to be fed by the male BB so perhaps putting it in the shed wasn't the best idea but you only did what you thought was best. We all live and learn ...as cruel as nature can be sometimes its usually best left alone ;-)

    Some info on nesting BBs in link below

    www.rspb.org.uk/.../
  • As Linda says we really do need to get over our natural impulse to interfere when we se what seems to be sn abandoned young bird. At the end of the day nature has been doing a good job of surviving without humans messing the system up. One of our local vets says she dreads this time of year when people bring her so called abandoned fledglings with the best intentions. Unfortunately it is usually a waste of time and she loses the youngsters.
  • Thanks for the posts but this was a different case, it was a nestling not a fledgling, I think it might have had something wrong with it as it did appear to have an issue with its left eye, I spoke to the vets nurse and she told me I was doing all I could, the bird was found not near a tree, not near a nest and near my bird feeder that was frequented by corvids of all shapes and forms as farmland backs my garden, that bird would not have lasted half an hour had I not moved it. I am curious if the parent new something was wrong with the nestling and moved it from the nest and abandoned it? there was no parents attending the bird and the bird was not able to move. I do agree with Linda and would normally have left well alone if the bird was not in immediate danger of being eaten.
  • Your comment about the parents realising something was wrong may be right there is a lot we do not understand about bird behaviour

  • I had a similar issue with a young woodpigeon out the nest too early a few weeks ago...the parent was still feeding it and there was no way I could return it to the nest as the trees are about 40ft high....it was dead on the lawn in the morning but it was a meal for others...circle of life am afraid.....we can't save them all...there will always be predators....squirrels, cats. other birds.......the young birds need to be fed by the parents for them to get the right nutrition or specialist care when these sort of things happen..although care can be hard to find....hopefully you will have plenty more youngsters this year to enjoy visiting your garden
  • Hi

    Thank you both for your input, much appreciated,

    It does make me realise that even with all the wrong that goes on with the world, we humans are special, in the fact that we have this empathy I feel with the young of any species, And because we can have this empathy we should realise our responsibility to the natural World.