Expert: Julia Booth - 8/28/2008

Question
Hi,
Me and my younger brother recently witnessed a baby robin fall out of its nest and we took care of it for about a month while it grew, feeding it many times a day whenever it chirped and it was nearly full grown.  My younger brother and father had taken the bird out to try to let it go, and it had kept coming back to get fed, so they were in the process trying to teach it to gather food on its own outside when a hawk swooped down and grabbed him.  My brother had grown quite attached to this bird and is extremely upset having watched it be killed.  I was wondering if you know there are places that maybe allow you to adopt, say an injured robin chick or something of this nature. Or places where you can incubate robins eggs yourself, because it was more like a pet than a wild bird after all that time, and I feel very bad.  It was even landing on his arm when he whistled.  Thanks.

Answer
Robins exhibit rather domestic behavior, and can easily be trained, but they are indeed wild animals. It is technically illegal to keep them indefinitely as pets.

Depending on where you live, there might be organizations you can join, in which you can volunteer to rehabilitate animals. You would probably have to meet their qualifications. I'm not sure if they allow minors to do this. If your father is involved, it would probably be okay. I participated in possum rehab as a highschooler, but I was employed at a regional park at the time.

The bottom line is that 80% of the birds born in a season will die before the next season comes. You just can't get attached. Sort of like being a doctor, you need to reconcile yourself with the fact that any bird you take into custody, just might die, whether you do everything right or not. Every bird that you try to help will not necessarily survive, and you can't allow that to discourage you. The majority of birds are prey, not predator, meaning that they will eventually be eaten by something.

There are a number of dove, pigeon, and other game bird species that your brother can legally keep as a pet. If his desire is to nurture, I would suggest one of those. Parrots, in general, can be rather costly, but they also have a very long lifespan.

Here is a directory of animal rehabilitators. If you don't see anything near you, let me know your zip code and I'll see what I can find. http://www.tc.umn.edu/~devo0028/contactA.htm

How old is your brother? There are also 4H programs he can participate in.

Julia