Well, it seems the travails will never end. We got up this morning and found another one on the concrete. And this one was still alive, raising its little head up and opening its mouth wide. I didn’t know what to do. I’ve heard if you put them back in the nest, the mom bird may reject them and the rest of the babies too. I don’t know whether that’s true but I didn’t want to risk it.

I put it in a box and brought it inside (after locking the cats in the bedroom). I doubt it’ll survive but I have to try. I was able to get it to drink some water off the tip of a little straw. Then after reading on the web about someone who was able to raise a barn swallow by feeding it cat food, I got it to eat some of the broth off a can of wet cat food. It takes it off the end of a chopstick. I’ll see if I can catch an insect and try to feed it to him later (the mom bird mostly feeds them in the late afternoon, when all the bugs are out). It’s sleeping now.

Baby, sleeping

Meanwhile, we’ve noticed that the nest seems a little incomplete or low on the right side and think that may be why they’re falling out. Trying to figure out a way to put something up there to block them from falling, without disturbing mom and dad. We hope that with them less crowded, they’ll be less likely to fall out. If that’s what’s happening – don’t know if they’re falling or the mom is putting them out because there’s something wrong with them, but with this one being alive and active, we’re now learning toward the former theory.

So today I’m dividing my time between watching over this tiny thing in the box and checking on the ones in the nest. Being a mommy bird, even a surrogate, is very time consuming. I have an even greater appreciation of what she does.

God, this has been a stressful year with the birds.