Expert: Julia Booth - 12/8/2008

Question
Hello, I am from Ontario Canada and I found a baby house sparrow in late August of 2008. It was approximately 3 days old and I raised it myself. It lives with me in my home, has free flight in the house and is doing very well. He is not very friendly towards people, he lets us come close but he has his limit where he will fly away. I was wondering, Is there any possibility that I can release him back into the wild this spring? Is my bird bound for a captive life? If there is a large possibility that he/she would die in the wild I would love to keep him with me, I love the bird and I just want to do what is best for him. We all enjoy him in the house. Also, he has gone bald. Most of the feathers on the top of his head have fallen out, not his cheeks or anything, just the top of his skull. What might be going on here?

Thanks for any information you can give me,

Nadia Bongelli

Answer
Your bird is molting, which is a perfectly natural process.

Sparrows generally live one or two years in the wild and only as many as five in captivity. It's illegal to keep them indefinitely, so I would recommend releasing it as soon as possible. It should have no trouble acclimating to the wild. Even if you do everything right, he won't live that long anyway. That's a fact of life.

Generally the birds who fail to fend for themselves, once they've lived in captivity, are predators who rely on hunting instincts to survive. When the first living thing they see is a human and not their biological parent, they do something known as imprinting, meaning they are going to look to that human to teach them what they need to do in order to survive. It's similar to the human process of bonding with a parent.

The best place for the bird is outside. House Sparrows are rather aggressive, one of the most populous species in North America and will always find food.

Hope this helps,

Julia