I bought a chickadee at least one day extra of Life

Shorty noticed a small(no feathers) chic chickadee fall out of the really high nest yesterday around 2PM. She made the mistake of showing it to me when she got back from picking kids up at school. It landed in an empty(except dirt) flower pot, which saved it's life from the fall.

After much hand wringing, arguing over borrowing a ladder from neighbors we don't like (would need a huge ladder), then feeble attempts to make a makeshift nest, where it was freezing to death in AND trying to feed it with an eyedropper - shorty finally convinced me to move it into the easily accessible robins nest. So I did, watched as the momma Robin, finally sat on it when she came back to the nest (she has 2..possibly 3 eggs couldn't see it all in her nest)....then I smoked a :m: and tried to forgetaboutit.

Well today I watched for a while (seemed like forever) and saw momma Robin, sitting on the chic, but didn't seem to feed it, even sitting on it when it mouth was wide open and getting bashed from underneath by the chic's head. When she left I climbed up and felt the chic - it was still warm at least - very warm. At least it will starve in comfort I thought...

Watched again later and the male Robin visited with a WORM! The little guy poked out his head from under her with mouth open and he fed the chic. Finally later I saw her feed the chic AND eat the poo. Golden...right?

I'm a little worried I might be screwing up the robin's nest and lowering the chances for their eggs and/or chics when they hatch.

I don't know the original reason the chic got tossed or if it fell out, that chickadee nest sure is loud though, I suspect they have too many. If I did manage to get up that high I think he'd get tossed again. From what I've read there is only a 2 day window to return him?

Anyone know about this stuff? BTW we don't have people in this city/province that will handle this stuff, like you might in some states/ provinces.

 

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Yeah sorry I can't approve of this, that's kind of weird twisted shit imposing it on the robins, if it was me and I couldn't take it somewhere to be taken care of or care for it myself I would unfortunately have to put it out of it's misery.

 

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Well I was about to do that but then we saw the Robin mother actually sat down on it. So that stayed the execution.

Your right I do feel like it's pretty twisted. Think they might think it's a robin? And when it LOOKS like a chickadee they are going to brain it?

 

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I dunno, I'd be more worried that when the robins hatch the chickadee will be stronger and bully them, either killing them outright, or hogging all the food and starving them.

 

Exactly what I was thinking. Hoping he's a fledgling before then...

 

At least you tried to help out when you could nietzschefan and gave the bird a chance because otherwise it would have died anyway.

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Well I hope you all know that "if" that chickadee does something to those robins when they hatch, I am going to hear..........See this was your stupid idea now look!

I figured that this was the best chance, and wasn't sure if the Mother Robin would even return with the foreign baby suddenly in her nest , or just chuck it out onto the grass.

Nietzsche was debating killing it that night....but I said just leave it overnight and see if the Robin warms up to the idea. She seems to have taken it under her wing now. I figured either way it was going to die and this was probably the best chance it had.

Remember all those robins that hatched that took pictures of..........

http://sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=92971


They all flew the coop and now there are more eggs! I didn't expect that. How many eggs do a pair of robins lay in 1 season? Could this possible be a different pair? ( I can't tell )

I will try and post some pictures of this new scenario. I hope it doesn't end badly!


BTW: If you mention the ladder one more time!!!

:spank:

 

Aren't there some birds that intentionally lay their eggs in the nests of other species of birds, and let them raise them?

 

Yeah, I call the chickadee female a "welfare mom" every time I see her.

 

Yeah cuckoos, and whenever I see them exhibitting this behaviour in documentaries I find it really disturbing. It actually knocks the other egg out, the mother looks confused that her baby is such a fat pig but her instincts tell her to keep feeding it anyway and it seems so wrong. Kind of like those dads who work hard to raise children only to find out it wasn't even theirs once they're too old to have more children, to me it seems like they've been completely violated, for all intents and purposes their whole existence has been erased in a humiliating and callous fashion.
I take passing on genes very seriously, afterall it's the driving force behind why anything does anything, so for something to waste it's time and energy mistakenly passing on something elses genes is a genuine heart-crushing tragedy.

 

There was a report out last year which showed interesting behavior traits from bird raised by the "wrong" species; namely that the songs were mostly similar to those of their species, but not exactly.

Nature was prevalent, but nurture played a role as well.

I'm interested in how this experiment goes!

 

You were right to make him do it!

Robins have two to three litters or broods a season.

 

The Robin

A fallen chic,
Chic of a chickadee
descends into pot of dirt.

Flowerless cushion,
Broke the fall cushioning,
The featherless babe unhurt.

By a woman seen,
Admiring the scenery,
A leaf laid over it's rest.

A man was told,
Whom thought himself bold,
But he could not reach the nest.

Crafty was he,
At the suggestion of she,
He gave The Robin a guest.

She already had three,
Yet The Robin took in Chickadee,
After Father had fed him a pest.

Checked in now and then,
By proud humans from their den,
Chickadee went from frozen to thriving.

Until one day,
As only humans can in their way,
Cause the now fledgling to lay dying.

A young life wrecked
By a pet left unchecked,
It's last song came after the first flying.

It watched from the lane,
He imagined The Robin's pain,
But it was his arrogance that caused the crying.

It sits now again,
For The Robin's three origin,
Safe from humans stopped trying.

-Nietzchefan

 

So, a cat got it?

 

No our stupid dog...

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Brucie? The monster. And people think pit bulls are dangerous...

 

Yeah Brucie...the little bastard! It happened so fast he pounced on it and it was dead.

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Jack Russell's are good at that. He probably keeps the yard pretty free of rodents, however. So that's a good thing.

 

Yeah that is one thing he is good at. It is just a shame after all we went through to save the little bird and the robin even adopting it. It was doing really well, it grew a lot and was thriving to end like that.