Blackbird chick, is it normal to have no tail ?

[Steve_In_Cheshire]

Ive just spotted what looks like a blackbird chick on the lawn, it appears to have no tail. We have had around 3 blackbird chicks on the lawn for the last month and they all have tails, i think this youngster looks like it has only just left the nest, it looks very young and smaller than the other blackbird chicks we have at the min.

At first it looked like a blackbird had mated with a wren I`m fairly certain its a blackbird chick as its the familiar brown with speckles on its chest.

[Jenny W]

They often leave the nest when the tail feathers are barely out of pin. It should start coming through soon!

[jetz]

Although blackbirds are good parents, the young often leave their nests really earlly, too earlly sometimes. It may be that the smallst blackbird baby is not related to the others, could be an entirely different nest. They are often seen around with no tail feathers, but the parents should still come down to feed it.

[theanimallover]

We had one in our garden with no tail too a few weeks ago, he looked to undevelped to have left the nest. It was very sad as he was dead a couple of days later...

[Insomniak]

Originally Posted by theanimallover

We had one in our garden with no tail too a few weeks ago, he looked to undevelped to have left the nest. It was very sad as he was dead a couple of days later...

Same story here, it hopped around the garden for 2 or 3 days, managed to get onto a tree stump and mother was feeding it regularly but sadly on the 4th morning I found it dead on the path.

[theanimallover]

Ahh, such a shame. I was going to phone up the rspb, because it looked like it needed some tlc, but I know they would say leave it where it is...

[jetz]

Call it right or wrong, but when i see birds that are clearly in trouble, i pick them up and take them home for some help. Usually its just a bit of food and warmth that is needed. My sucess rate is quite high at the moment, which means i haven't lost any this year. So picking the bird up and helping it is a good thing to do i think. It is certainly better than leaving it to see what it does and find it dead a few days later. But then again you do need a bit of knowledge about the bird itself, like what it eats identifying etc. I use a great hand rearing formula by kaylee for the baby birds, just mix with water and syringe feed every few mins depending on the age of the bird.

[valleyforge]

Jetz,

This has to be a judgement call based on sound knowledge of what you are doing ... and a firm understanding of just how big a commitment is needed to hand-rear a fledgling.

Please don't dismiss this as 'just a bit of food and warmth' ... raising a fledgling can mean hand-feeding it with a species-specific blend of nutrients and a one-fits-all formula just doesn't exist; although you might be able to keep the bird alive, you may not be equipping it with the essential minerals needed for proper skeletal, muscular and feather development, so effectively handicapping its future chances of survival in the wild.

It will require feeding perhaps every 20 minutes during daylight hours (5am to 9pm say), for maybe a few weeks until it is able to adequately self-feed.

However, even then you can't simply let it go to fend for itself as it likely won't be able to. Abandoning any animal in such circumstance is also now a contravention of the animal protection laws in this country (UK).

Fostering any bird or animal needs to be entered with the full realisation that you are substituting yourself for the natural parents, and you can only ever be a poor second to what nature has designed parent birds to do since before humans even evolved.

There are of course circumstances when human intervention becomes necessary to save a life, and anyone prepared to do so has my full support.

However, it would be irresponsible for me to leave readers of this forum with the impression that you can simply remove a young bird from its natural environment and parental care for a few days to give 'just a bit of food and warmth'.

Once you accept a bird into your care, you must take total responsibility for its welfare, or hand it over to someone who can provide the long-haul care needed. The fact is most people simply can't provide the necessary amount of time to fit this around their work, studies or family life.