THE BABY FINCH

The story of finding and raising a baby Finch

The Baby Finch

            My friend Ron often walks my three year old Shi Tzu Snuffles with his thirteen year old Shepherd mix dog, Happy.  Although there is a big difference in their sizes it seems to not make the slightest bit of difference in the way they play and walk together.  Snuffles adores Happy and looks up to her, they never will pass up a chance to play.  They are very cute together.

            One morning after their walk Ron comes back with two leashes in one hand and a baby bird cupped in his other hand.  “Look what Happy found” he says. “Must have been trying to fly, it was lying on the cement fifty feet from the nearest tree.”  The poor baby bird had a little fuzzy yellow chest and two gray stripes on the wings.  No sign of a tail.  It was obviously much too young to be trying to fly.  Happy found it and was licking it.  So there we were with a baby bird to feed.  

            I had an Orchid plant with moss in the bottom of the pot.  The plant is about fourteen inches high with a parallel limb at the top where the bloom had been.  There was moss in the pot and that seemed a good nest for a baby bird. 

            I had made oatmeal that morning which seemed like it might be a good thing to fill the little bird’s belly. I found a dropper in my pet supplies.   The bird opened its mouth wide the first time and got a nice amount.  After that it was all uphill.  The poor little dear didn’t understand why the food tasted so funny and we went through a lot of maneuvering to get it fed.  I later purchased baby bird meal from the pet store but it still was not easy to feed.

            About two in the afternoon the bird started calling for its mama, cheep, cheep, cheep, in a never ceasing cry.  When the sun was no longer shining on the patio Ron picked up the plant and took it outside with baby bird still cheeping on the moss.  I have a fountain on the patio and Finch are attracted to water.  It was only a matter of minutes when I looked out of the window and saw a beautiful yellow bellied Finch at the fountain.  Without thinking too much about it we later brought the baby bird back into the house for the night, attempting one more time to feed it with little success.

            Night was fast approaching.  The bird was in the kitchen but we could see it from the living room.  Slowly it climbed its way up the Orchid stem and onto the parallel limb.

There it perched all night.  First thing in the morning we fed it as best we could and then put it back on the patio table.  This time the beautiful mama Finch was waiting for her little one with food ready for the feeding.

            They say that if a human touches a baby bird it will be abandoned by its mother, well, we can tell a different story.  That little mama was more than willing to care for her poor little beat up baby a half block from where it had fallen.  We would see her out of my window during the day feeding her little one, its wings fluttering when she was near. If we missed seeing her we would feed it baby bird meal mixed with water and also more water served from the dropper.

              One day I watched it climb to the top of our Guava tree and then fall with a thud when failing to fly.

            If the bird was missing Ron would say “Happy, go find the birdie” and she never had a problem tracking it down.  The only problem was she would lick it when she did find it.  Ron would have to quickly give her a command to leave it.  One day Snuffles even had his paw on it.  Both dogs were fascinated by the baby bird, but gentle.

            By the seventh day birdie was doing quite well. We had the poor little guy until the tail feathers grew and it was able to fly short distances in our fenced back yard from one small tree branch to another.

            The morning of the eighth day we put the bird outside as usual looking pretty good!  Within five minutes it was gone.  Mama had given it its last flying lesson and away they went.  There was a lot of anxiety and a few tears over this little bird but it is free!  We have one more beautiful Finch to grace our neighborhood.

Author's Note

This story ended a week ago on Sunday Morning
ALL COMMENTS WELCOME

Reviews

[Brittany weddle]

what a wonderful and touching story.

[Samuel Dickens]

What a sweet and wonderful story! Warmed my heart, it did. As a kid, I tried many times to save baby birds that fell or were pushed from their nests, but never with any success. Now I know it can be done.

[Diana Lynn Hill/Angell]

That was nice.

[Dream Weaver]

Such an enchanting story it made my day.
Gives hope for the human race and a lovely
thing you accomplished...

[Tasha]

This is such a beautiful story that was so well written.
♥ Ta'Shandra

[KAREN]

Beautiful story! Our dog would be rough with the poor bird. Hearwarming read!!

[DONALD EISSLER]

Hey I Think I know that Bird .. very well written .. As always you bring out the best in every thing you write ....
tk

[WordShifter]

I love this about the little birds, thank God for kind people like you and Ron, and you have such nice dogs. Thank you for sharing about this little bird, I'm so glad it lived. What a great story. Praise the Lord. Hope you don't mind but I added a link about some of my baby birds. I started feeding them at 3 weeks, what a job but worth it.
http://needleweaver.com/BabyHybridMacaws1101.html

[Barbara Lynne]

awww...that is so sweet...just found a little one at my aunts house...unfortunately, his ending wasn't as happy as yours...we tried...love how happy and snuffles helped...it is amazing how they just "know"...