When we first purchased our home, a number of years ago, Wes was outside hosing down the cement area when one first walks into our yard. He came in quickly and said that a baby bird was on the cement and that he had hosed it accidentally. I ran out and picked it up. I could not see a nest, but back then the word was that found baby birds should NOT be returned to the nest as the parents would reject it with human scent on it. This of course was found to be incorrect information. I brought the featherless little bird inside, warmed it up and found out from one of the veterinarians i was working with at the Animal Clinic of Santa Cruz, that the best thing to feed it was watered down dog food (cat food has too much protein) using a syringe without the needle to administer the food. Well, little BeeBee started feathering out and I kept her in our parlor which had no furniture in it, nothing on the walls, floor torn up and she could be quite free inside there.
She started flying about after a couple of months, maybe three, and I made the decision to take her out and let her go. I was deeply saddened as she was quite attached to me and I her, but I felt it was the right thing to do.
So I went to my front porch and let her go. She immediately flew out and dropped down onto the middle of our main street. She seemed to just sit there. The neighbor across the street had a golden retriever and they live for birds as you can imagine. So he charged little BeeBee and I screamed out, "No, no. That's my little pet bird!". The dog owner called him off and BeeBee heard me and flew right up to me. I brought her inside and thought today was not the day for BeeBee to go free.
Each day after that one however, I took her outside and she flew from my second story front porch over to the pine trees across the street, fooled around for a few minutes and then flew back to me. This went on for months. Finally, one day there was a sparrow party of sorts, gathered outside the parlor windows. I came in to the room and BeeBee acted like a wild bird. She WANTED to go out and it was very obvious to me that she had heard the call of the wild and would be okay. I opened the front door and released her and never was sad and never saw her again. It was the perfect ending.
She started flying about after a couple of months, maybe three, and I made the decision to take her out and let her go. I was deeply saddened as she was quite attached to me and I her, but I felt it was the right thing to do.
So I went to my front porch and let her go. She immediately flew out and dropped down onto the middle of our main street. She seemed to just sit there. The neighbor across the street had a golden retriever and they live for birds as you can imagine. So he charged little BeeBee and I screamed out, "No, no. That's my little pet bird!". The dog owner called him off and BeeBee heard me and flew right up to me. I brought her inside and thought today was not the day for BeeBee to go free.
Each day after that one however, I took her outside and she flew from my second story front porch over to the pine trees across the street, fooled around for a few minutes and then flew back to me. This went on for months. Finally, one day there was a sparrow party of sorts, gathered outside the parlor windows. I came in to the room and BeeBee acted like a wild bird. She WANTED to go out and it was very obvious to me that she had heard the call of the wild and would be okay. I opened the front door and released her and never was sad and never saw her again. It was the perfect ending.
 | Both of these pictures are from the internet, but they definitely look like BeeBee. She had no feathers whatsoever when we found her and then looked just like this little one when we started flying lessons. Very sweet. |
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