Hi. We had some birds nest in our backyard recently. We know there
were three nestlings. Today, all of the birds left the nest, except
one fledgling that didn't fly very well. It just hung around the
backyard all day.
My mom is very interested in finding out what kind of bird it was.
Here is a pic that I took of it:
http://i32.tinypic.com/99quc4.jpg
(57KB)
The fledgling would periodically attempt to fly, but it did so in a
corner, right up against the fence, so it would hit the fence and
bounce back to the ground. Later in the day it did seem to manage
short distances, but not much height.
Near evening, I saw a cat in the backyard approaching the fledgling's
corner in a slow, predatory manner, and we shoo'ed the cat away ASAP.
At this point we decided maybe the fence was hindering the fledgling,
so we shoo'ed it out of our yard as well.
The fledgling flew a short distance onto the neighbor's front lawn. We
stood afar and monitored it for a bit. A larger bird, presumably one
of the parent, did eventually fly by and hang out with the fledgling.
They started to move beyond a hedge together, and we lost sight of
them.
My mom is very worried, not knowing if we did the right thing or even
what kind of bird it is. Does anyone know if we helped it or doomed
it? :(


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