Name: ICHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-06-05T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-06-07T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Bourbonnais, IL

This topic has 5 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 11 months ago by greenebalts.

Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

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June 13, 2012 at 5:26 am
chocodog
Participant
I don’t know if any of you have experianced this but I just had to share just in case someone was ever in a similar situation.
   Now, all my life I was told if you pick up a baby bird the mother will kill it. I have seen this happen….
This year our yard had tons of activity going on. We had baby birds hatching out everywhere. My son’s were fortunate enough to have a nest within their grasp. about 3 1/2 feet off the ground. A mother robin even let them look at the eggs she was sitting on without getting up much.
There was 4 eggs and they were able to see them hatch one by one. This worried me because I have seen robins get really protective of their nests and swoop down and run off even the quickest adult.
   Ok. Now we had a storm not that long ago. Three of the babies fell out. Two didn’t make it before my son came along and noticed what had happened. He brought the baby bird in the house to me. It didn’t have any feathers. We raise chickens so we put him under a heating lamp and warmed him back up. My son took him out later and put him back in the nest. The mother was watching the whole time. She came down and sat on the birds. I really didn’t think he was going to make it. Little by little he got more feathers and just the other day my son came back in the house with him. He fell out of the nest again. This time he was trying to fly. He hopped along. It looked like his foot might be a little hurt. It could have been from the first fall. Maybe it was from the sencond. 🙂
   So, i told him to go and put him back in the nest and see what he will do. He jumped up to the higher branches and tried to fly.
   Now, I noticed the other day the robins in the other tree had called one of their babies to fly He eventually did. My other son was holding that bird also. once the bird was in the trees he was flying away low to the ground. So, when it came time for the other baby bird I was able to tell my son that the parents were waiting for the bird to teach him how to eat.
   I hope I told him the right stuff about the baby bird. I was excited to see the joy on my childrens face when the birds were growing and the sadness they felt when they left the nest. However, this brings up a point.
   Has anyone else experianced a robin or any bird letting their children watch their babies growing up and flying off or is this just a strange blessing that we were lucky to encounter? Has anyone else put a baby bird back in the nest and everything was ok? I am curious if someone had a similar story. 🙂
         Thanks for sharing if you do…
                           BLessings!
June 13, 2012 at 11:04 am
LyndaF
Participant
I use to take my children to volunteer for the local state park. We use to count eggs and babies of Eastern Bluebirds because their popualtion had dropped so much. We, also, rescued many different kinds of baby birds and put them back into nests. We were told by the naturalist at the park that birds are very devoted mothers and will do anything to take care of there babies. That being said, I know of a few birds that will not take back baby birds. Ducks being one of the main ones. When a baby falls out of a nest and its mother is chasing it around. She is usually trying to chase it into a bush or another place where it will be protected from preditors. I would say it is always better to try to put the bird back into the nest.
June 13, 2012 at 11:04 am
Bookworm
Participant
We’ve had a similar experience with house finches. The parents let us take the nest down (it was in a hanging planter) observe the babies, and replace one once. They also let me clean out the planter from, um, the consequences of having six birds live in it. Fun! These close encounters with nature are magical for the children, aren’t they?
June 13, 2012 at 1:23 pm
Janell
Participant
A Says Phoebe couple built their nest under the eave of our house and have four large babies. They let us get quite close to them to daily examine the babies’ progress. Yesterday one fledgling was coaxed out of the nest by its mother’s luring with a grasshopper. It followed her up the roof and then swooped down a little wobbly to our feet. We gathered around it only to be amazed by its gallant escape and glide across the yard. We thought it flew the nest, never to be seen again. It flew back to the nest eventually. The other three are just about ready for their own flight school, but they all look so content in the nest. Hopefully we will have them around a few more days.
June 13, 2012 at 3:08 pm
Kristen
Participant
My kids just last week found a baby bird on the ground and from previous experiences they know to put the baby bird back in the nest. Well, they couldn’t find the nest so they put it in a different nest that was the same species (Barn swallow). Then they check on it once a day and report back to me how it is doing. Yesterday they reported that they were big and had all their feathers and this morning they were gone! That poor Mama Swallow had to raise an extra baby but it worked :0)
June 13, 2012 at 3:22 pm
greenebalts
Participant
After reading the Burgess Bird Book, our kids located several birds and nests this spring. Here’s some photos if you please….. http://reflectionsfromdrywoodcreek.blogspot.com/2012/05/for-birds.html

I highly recommend the Burgess book. It’s awesome for young and old!!

Blessings,
Melissa