My good friend Jen Panton from United Action for Animals was walking her dogs on 5th Avenue close to Central Park early on Friday morning when she discovered a small bird on a window sill flailing its wings, seemingly unable to fly.
On the way back from her walk the bird was still in the same spot so Jen captured it and took it to her bird friend who confirmed that the bird was indeed a fledgling that could not yet fly. Her friend encouraged Jen to bring it back to the same spot she found it since there was a good chance her mother was nearby. Jen was torn. She knew if the bird stood any chance of survival it was with its mother, but she would be returning it to a busy street.
So Jen obliged her friend and returned the bird to the same window sill where she had found it and within seconds her mother swooped down and greeted the bird, speaking to it frenetically. A minute later, the mother bird flapped its wings to cross the street and the baby bird slowly followed. But because she could not open her wings to clear the street in time, she met her fate from a car that was headed in her direction.
Both Jen and the mother bird went to the fledgling who lay dead in the middle of the street. Jen said the mother bird stood over her young and paced back and forth grieving. Jen, also extremely upset, sobbed as she contemplated the lesson in all of it.
Last year I had my first experience with a fledgling and its mother who was trying to teach its young to find its wings. It’s an uneasy feeling, watching the baby bird get caught in places the mother bird cannot rescue it from. So you intervene where you can, torn about taking it from its mother or allowing nature to take its course…