Heroic Measures

Last weekend Mitch was doing some yardwork outside while I was cleaning and working inside. He came to the front door and knocked on it (it was locked). Before I could get to it, he knocked again. I got to the door and opened it and he said in a very concerned voice "I just accidentally cut a tree branch down that had a bird nest in it." I panicked. I didn't want to kill any little birds, especially because the mom has been living on one of our outside garage rafters for the past several months. We bonded. Okay, back to the birds.

I went outside and looked and this is what was on the ground. One bird had fallen out of the nest in the process of it falling from the tree. Can you see them both? They're so tiny!

Literally, the birds were each the size of a quarter.

I panicked and didn't know what to do. I had always grown up hearing that if you touch or go anywhere near a baby bird or its nest, the mom will abandon them and they will die anyway. So I quickly Googled the question "what to do if a baby bird nest falls from a tree". I ended up finding a phone number for our local Wildlife Rehabilitation Center and lo and behold they were open on a Sunday and a man answered the phone. I quickly explained our situation and I learned something new. Birds WILL NOT abandon their young if you touch them or go near the nest because they don't even have a sense of smell! The only birds that can smell are vultures and they do not typically nest around humans. The Wildlife man said to put the fallen baby bird back in the nest with the other one and put the nest back in the tree as close to where it originally was as possible. Our solution:

Yes, this is my handy husbands idea. Zip-tie the chopped branch back to the tree. We are crafty like that. I am proud to report that our solution seems to have worked because it has been a full week later and the birds are still alive and moving! Yay for the life-saving suggestion from the Wildlife Rehab man!