Found a starling in my front lawn - interesting sequence of events

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around an encounter with a starling bird found in a front lawn, detailing the events of its care and the challenges faced in reuniting it with its parent. Participants explore the appropriateness of feeding methods for the bird and share their thoughts on wildlife care.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant describes finding a starling and attempting to care for it, noting the behavior of the parent bird and the challenges of reuniting them.
  • Another participant questions the choice of feeding the starling chicken, suggesting that worms might be a more suitable option.
  • A different participant mentions feeding wild birds dry cat food soaked in water and expresses reluctance to feed raw meat, indicating a preference for more natural food sources.
  • One participant shares a belief that baby birds may not be able to digest worms, leading them to opt for cooked meat instead.
  • A humorous remark compares feeding chicken to a starling to feeding bacon to a pig, prompting a light-hearted response from another participant.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing opinions on the appropriateness of feeding methods for the starling, with no consensus reached on the best approach to care for the bird.

Contextual Notes

There are uncertainties regarding the dietary needs of starlings, particularly concerning the digestibility of worms for young birds, and the discussion reflects varying personal experiences and beliefs about wildlife care.

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Allright call me a naturalist , for those of you interested I had a short encounter with mother nature the other day.

Friday afternoon - I found a starling bird in my front lawn , it was being real still with its head pointed to the sky. It started to hop in the other direction as soon as it noticed me. I went back inside the house to do a little research and it turns out that the claim that the mother rejecting the chick once a human contacts it is false. I placed the starling within a box and observed the box through the window for the mother to claim it.

The mother did not show up and it got dark so I kept it inside my garage and handfed fed it some chicken soaked in water ... which it absolutely loved. The next day I placed the box outside and after a few hours noticed an adult bird , which I suspected to be the parent , dancing around it with a worm - sadly the dumb bird just wasn't able find the starling despite the fact that both of them were chirping at each other. It was pretty amazing really , every time the baby would chirp the parent would reorient itself towards the box , so it was just basically dancing around the box. Sad ... just sad.

I placed the starling on the lawn - it started to go in the opposite direction of where the mother was , that is towards the road. I placed it closer to the wooded area where the mother was and observed what was happening inside the house through the window. It turns out that it was the parent after all , assuming that only parents take care of the offspring for this particular bird species , it started to feed it worms.

Unfortunately the starling kept running from the mother. Which got me wondering how such starlings are taken care of in the first place - obviously if it's able to walk it is not going to be on a nest located high up on the tree rather it is probably going to be within a shrub or on a ground nest somewhere. I went elsewhere for a while and returned to find that the starling made its way into the wooded area , god knows where the nest actually is and whether it finds its way , it'll be lucky if it does because it's a jungle in there , the starling was conspicuous - pretty much the only thing moving on the ground - and I sensed that anything could just walk over there and make a meal out of it.
 
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Just curious...why would you feed it chicken? Wouldn't a worm be better?
 
WhoWee said:
Just curious...why would you feed it chicken? Wouldn't a worm be better?

Don't worms taste like chicken anyway?
 
I feed wild birds, that would normally eat bugs, dry cat food soaked in water. But I have out of emergency, feed them raw meat. I guess I was not in the mood to barf up a worm for it. Some days are better then others.
 
WhoWee said:
Just curious...why would you feed it chicken? Wouldn't a worm be better?

I read from somewhere that baby birds are not able to digest worms - although this was a starling I was still uncertain on whether he would be able to digest it so I followed the advice to feed it cooked meat that mushed up e.g. canned dog food as hypatia mentioned. Except I don't have a dog so I found the next best thing and it worked out great.
 
feeding a starling chicken is like feeding a pig bacon. you sicko.
 
jesus you're right ... :biggrin:
 

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