Summer Internship Week 6
- Emma Jefferson
- Jun 24, 2022
- 3 min read
June 20th, 2022
This has been a week of late nights! Baby season is really in full swing. My best estimate is that Centre Wildlife Care has over 200 animals on site, 99% of which are babies. I've started to feel just a tiny bit burned out after six weeks of working six days a week, but I'm staying strong! My coworkers take a lot of credit for making my internship fun. My supervisor and the other evening intern are awesome! We all used to work together back when I was a volunteer, so we work together well and get along great. I'm really glad I get to spend the summer working with them. This week we've been dealing with a lot of baby birds! We got a baby blue jay and baby tree swallows, as well as a fledgeling kestrel. We've also been taking care of a fledgling great-horned owl for a few weeks. This week he started eating whole food, so I've gotten to feed him a bunch of times! I also got to feed the fledgling kestrel when he came in. He was very scared at first, but with each bit of food I offered him with forceps, he got a little bit closer to me and fluffed out his feathers more and more. Feeding fledgling raptors is lots of fun because you offer them food with forceps for them to eat. Raptors eat things whole, and it's a lot of fun to see the great-horned owl swallow a mouse whole. I'm going to put a video of the great-horned eating at the end of the post. If you don't like blood or mice cut in half, don't watch!
When you were reading the first paragraph, did you wonder what the term fledgling means? If so get ready, because I'm going to talk about the different stages of baby bird development! After birds hatch from the egg, they are called hatchlings. Hatchlings have no feathers and only have a little bit of fluffy down. Their eyes are closed, and they are completely helpless, not to mention funny looking. At Centre Wildlife Care, hatchlings are fed every 15 minutes. A few days after hatching, baby birds are considered to be nestlings. Nestlings have their eyes open, and they are starting to grow feathers. Nestlings are not ready to be on their own yet, and we have to feed them every 30 minutes. After they are a few weeks old, baby birds are considered to be fledglings. Fledglings have most or all of their feathers and are trying to learn how to fly. Fledglings are often seen hopping on the ground because they aren't quite able to fly yet, but don't worry! A fledgling's parents are still providing for them and watching out for danger. However, if you see a fledgling in imminent danger, you can move it to a branch in a bush or tree for safety. Fledglings are fed every hour at CWC.
If you ever find a hatchling or nestling on the ground, they need your help! These little guys are unable to survive on their own or be outside of the nest. If the mother is alive and it was just the nest that was disturbed or destroyed, you can try to re-nest the baby birds by attaching a basket to the original tree of bush the nest was in. I'll put some resources at the end, and you can always call CWC if you need advice on when re-nesting is appropriate. Also, it is a complete myth that mother birds will abandon their young because they can smell that people touched them. Outside of a few species such as the turkey vulture, birds have very bad senses of smell. If you ever find a baby bird that is visibly injured, especially if it has been attacked by a cat or dog, please take it to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. Cat scratches and bites carry a lot of bacteria that can lead to life-threatening infections if not treated properly. When cared for properly, baby birds are fascinating to watch. In just a few weeks they grow from being tiny and helpless to being able to fly and fend for themselves.
Don't watch the video if you get squeamish really easily!
Baby bird resources
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