Who is T.J. Ecklebird?
May 20, 2012 2:34 PM   Subscribe

What kind of baby bird did we find in our backyard? Will it be OK? Are we doing the best thing for it by leaving it alone?

We found Dr. T. J. Ecklebird sitting in the middle of our backyard (Southern NJ) this morning. He didn't look too happy, and I thought perhaps he was deceased. By the time I got my wife outside to look, he had disappeared and we thought one of the many neighborhood creatures had taken him away. However, further search in our backyard yielded the Doctor hiding under a bush in our yard. We decided to leave him be and research further.

After following some flowchart from an animal rehabilitator's website, we decided that the best thing to do would be to not intervene, and hope that his parents would take care of him. Apparently, baby birds fall out of the next, and the parents will often bring them food. We came back a few hours later, and Dr. T.J. Ecklebird moved up about 6 inches off the ground to a branch! Hooray!

Can anyone identify what this little guy is? We have all manner of fancy birds flying across our area, and I can identify very few of them. He's about the size of a 'normal sized' fist. Bigger than many of the other birds we see inhabiting our area. I don't want to bug him by getting too close to get a ruler up in there, so let's say fist-sized.

We tried to call our local, state-licensed wildlife rehabilitator, but they did not answer their phone. Is there anything else we need to do to make sure that things will turn out OK for him?

Thanks!
posted by Geckwoistmeinauto to Home & Garden (9 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Some sort of thrush. At a guess, a young mistle thrush.
posted by pipeski at 2:38 PM on May 20, 2012


Best answer: Can't say the species for sure (looks like a thrush of some kind) but I'm pretty sure it's a nestlingfledgling, not a nestling. In other words it's supposed to be out of the nest. The parents will likely feed it till it can fly and live on its own. All you need to do, or should do, is keep cats and other predators away. Hold off on yard work, too.
posted by Perodicticus potto at 2:40 PM on May 20, 2012


Best answer: It's almost for sure a juvenile American Robin.

It's fledged, and is probably still being fed by its parents. It can kind of fly, maybe, or will be able to within a few days.
posted by rtha at 2:42 PM on May 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


Sorry, phone fail- that should have said "fledgling, not nestling." And it's highly unlikely to be a mistle thrush, as they're European and this bird is in America.
posted by Perodicticus potto at 2:44 PM on May 20, 2012


Best answer: I would hazard a guess it is a baby Robin, it's got a Robin's face

here is a decent list of what to do
posted by edgeways at 2:45 PM on May 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


Oh, one more thing - "not looking too happy' is totally normal for fledgling thrushes (the American Robin is a thrush). Our European Blackbirds are the same way. The fledglings look like the sulky teenagers they are!
posted by Perodicticus potto at 2:50 PM on May 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: The robin folks are right! We decided to have some front-yard time with the dog, since we wanted to keep him away from the birds, and we saw a robin catching worms. After a brief pursuit, we saw the robin feeding not only Dr. T.J. Ecklebird, but also another fledgling on the other side of the yard. So, that's exciting. Thanks, all!
posted by Geckwoistmeinauto at 2:57 PM on May 20, 2012 [4 favorites]


Response by poster: For future reference, here is the flow chart we used to determine that it was OK to do nothing.
posted by Geckwoistmeinauto at 2:59 PM on May 20, 2012 [6 favorites]


It is a robin, and it's fine...leave it alone....
posted by HuronBob at 3:01 PM on May 20, 2012


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