Today we are holding a funeral

Today we are holding a funeral procession.  I regret to inform my readers that my Baby Bird died. My little runt of a sparrow (turns out they are sparrows not Eastern Phoebes) passed away today between 8-10:15 am.

His siblings started picking on him and I tried to intervene without success.

R.I.P. Baby Bird, April 11, 2012

Birds!

A nest full of 4 baby birds was removed from my elderly neighbor's roof eave.  I felt bad for them.  So, I am now hand raising them.

I am pretty proud to say all 4 (even my runt) have made it through 4 nights with me!

I found a good web resource saying not to touch baby birds they probably aren't orphaned so on and so forth. No option for these babies.  The website did have great feeding instructions and recipe.

Their diet is:

canned dog food
hard boiled egg
lean ground beef
and a
teaspoon of dirt or sand
all mashed up together

I use surgical clamps to stick it in their gaping mouths.

My babies are developing quickly! Since Saturday they have all developed tail feathers (my runt a little slower) and my 3 big birds are starting to get feathers everywhere!

My little runt didn't even have his eyes open.  Now they are open and bright.

I swear they looked different every hour.