Birds do not have a sense of smell, so you cannot put your scent on them. All the calls that we take on hatchlings(as the name suggests), nestlings( some feather growth but still in nest, eyes open), and fledglings( out of nest), we take as individual cases, you have to ask the caller a few questions to find out if the bird needs some help. Cat attack birds definately need to come in, if hatchlings or nestlings are on the ground and can't be put back ie nest collapse, they need help too. We try and educate callers about fledglings on the ground and try to explain we can't take every fledgling in under the threat of a cat, if the cat in question belongs to the caller we ask them if they could perhaps keep the cat in for the day to give the birds a chance, ofcourse we get accused of not caring and "so your saying let the cat kill the bird then" Grrrr! Comments like that make us feel very cross!
All the young birds we have helped so far this year, i would say our success rate is roughly 50%. You can rear and release back to the wild successfully as long as you don't make them tame. The key is not to have too much close contact with them. Feed them, keep them warm, you get used to knowing the different stages ie when to give them more space to move around, when to introduce a perch, when to put small bowls of food and water in with them, and all birds and mammals for that matter do much better with company of their own kind.
Egg food is a good starter food for young birds, it does need water adding to it to make a palatable paste, and fed on a small soft childs paint brush. As the bird grows and is at the stage of moving and perching you can put it in a small bowl in the cage, add a few mealworms(not forgetting to crush the head when feeding to young birds) you can crush the head but still leave it wriggling to catch the birds attention
and hey presto they will start to pick up naturally. Easy eh
