Expert: Julia Booth - 9/10/2008

Question
We were cutting down our blk. walnut tree and were hauling away the braches in a trailer, there we found these two baby birds, one much smaller than the other, sad to say the little one did not make it, but the one remaining.....
ia a about tad larger now than a sparrow , not by much, he/she is gray and brown and growing  some white by the tail,it has a cone shaped beak, can't much tell about the tail(kind of straight out at the moment) Some white larger feathers are appearing on it,it likes to walk around and when it is hungry now it flaps it's wings like it's flying, and peeps when it sees you or is hungrey or heres or see you near.we found it in the day time.
I am feeding it high protien bay cereal with one drop of all  bird multi drops ( vitamins )through a rubber finger from a glove , works well, 1finger and a half full. he was drinking water from a cup, but doesn't seem to want to much now. He likes to sit on my shoulder and look around, he didn't have too many feathers when it was found but has may now except on the breast and around the neck, but you can see them coming in. I would like to know how you tell the sex and when i should start feeding it other things and wht to feed it.
We left it out during the day by the tree we had cut down, but we never saw the adult birds tend to them, I would bring them in at night to keep them warm, we have it in a smal cage on a heating pad, and it has a blanket it likes to cuddle in, we shap it like a nest and leave a corner to cover him with. What else can I do to keep this little fella or gal comfortable and healthy?
We give it a bath , have to!!! while it is feeding it sure makes a mess!!! then we wrap it in a paper towel until it is dry enough so it won't catch cold.
Sure get a kick out of the little critter!:-D

Answer
Well it sounds like you've done well so far. Generally the rule of thumb is to NOT give water to baby birds. Most of the time, this results in drowning. They get all the moisture they need from their food.

Sparrow sized birds tend to fledge between 4-5 weeks. This means at this point, the bird would be ready to leave and you would no longer need to feed it. If it's a wild bird, indigenous to your county/state, it is not legal to keep it indefinitely as a pet.

I would have to see a picture (even a bad one) to tell you the species. I cannot tell you anything specific about diet, unless I know what bird it is. Diet varies greatly. Some birds eat insects, some vegetation, some seeds, some fish, some rodents and some other birds.

Cone shaped beak says to me finch/grosbeak/bunting/sparrow/towhee -but your subject says wild dove?? The tail you describe makes me think sparrow or towhee.

A lot of sparrows look similar to one another as juveniles, making them hard to identify. Sexing them is equally complicated, because the distinguishing charateristics vary from one species to the next. Some birds are sexually dimorhpic, meaning the female and male appear different, and some are not.

Feel free to take a picture and send it to me. I'm curious as to what you've got. You can email me directly at juliabohemian@aol.com

Continue encouraging it to flap its wings. When it's ready to fly, it will take off.

Julia