We Saved a Baby Bird

Thursday night, April & I decided to treat ourselves to some Chinese food and a couple of rented movies. The take-out place and the video store were both in the same strip mall near our house.

On the walk back from the video store to the restaurant to pick up our completed order we heard the sound of a baby bird somewhat close to our immediate area. I looked around and found the little guy (a baby sparrow, similar to the ones in this photo I found online) on the sidewalk, none the worse for wear, but obviously scared and hungry. Needless to say he was adorable and he kept pleading with us for food as if we had mangled worms and bugs ready to go down his gullet.

We stared at him a bit and tried to figure out from where he fell. Seeing no immediate nest around we decided we'd scoop him up and take him to a local animal refuge in the hopes he would survive.

We headed to April's car to find some sort of suitable sparrow receptacle. I grabbed an old puzzle box from the car and she went to pick up the food. When I got back to baby bird central I started hearing other baby bird chirps. At the top of a stucco pillar, in a tight crevice, there were two more little baby bird heads peering out and screaming for food. Now I knew where he lived. I just had to figure out how to get him back in there.


I used the box parts to scoop up he little guy and take him out of harm's way. Near the car was a resale shop that, surprisingly, was still open. I went inside and where I'd normally find a bitter old lady behind the counter, I found a tall, young, blond, absolutely gorgeous girl. I asked if they had a ladder I could borrow and explained why I needed it. Not only did they have a ladder, but they also had rubber gloves that would prevent my human smell from contaminating the baby bird smell. Everything was working out fine.

April found me gathering a ladder. She grabbed the box-O-bird. We ventured out to the nest ready to return the baby to the parents.

When we arrived there we found at least one of the parents fluttering about the nest. I just positioned he ladder and worked my way up there. I gently placed the bird in my best guess as to where the sibling birds actually were (I couldn't really see inside the nest from the angle I was standing). The damned thing kept trying to scurry back to me so I did a little extra pushing back into position and then the other parent bird came bursting out from behind another crevice, scaring the heck out of both of us and making me laugh.

We returned the ladder to the store, said our thank yous, and had a brief chat about what a nice thing we did. We chatted about how adorable the bird and then watched our movies.

Friday I rode out to that mini mall on my bike to check up and see if the whole thing stuck. I mean the parents could have simply abandoned the babies and they'd have died overnight. I figured if I didn't see any bird carcasses on the ground we'd accomplished the task. Indeed there was no sparrow carnage around. Above I heard the sound of babies chirping and looked up to see three little heads asking for food. Soon afterwards one of the parents came by with dinner.

April & I have never been happier with something so silly.