Baby blackbird or thrush

[bop]

Baby blackbird (fledgling) found in our kitchen Friday morning - brought in we think by one of our cats. We went into our large garden but could not see any adult blackbirds -despite leaving him outside for part of day. He is fully feathered, flapping wings but not able to fly. Tail feathers look small.
We have been feeding him with cut up worms, slugs & meal worms. Seems very lively & takes food readily from forceps. Any ideas of how we can introduce him back into wild, when we should do this, how to supplement his food whilst he is returning. We live in a rural area with a number of cats, magpies, crows, foxes, kites etc.

[Dorts]

I know just how you feel, we have all done it with a greater or lesser degree of success.
But once you pick up that apparently abandoned bird you have interfered with the natural process.
In most cases the bird is not abandoned and the parents are probably nearby waiting for the opportunity to continuing with the feeding. But of course many do not survive. Many small bird species will lay an amazing number of eggs, the Long-tailed Tit up to twenty for example, just to make sure one or two may survive.
Unfortunately, as hard as it may be to accept, most of our baby birds never reach maturity. They are food for the many predatory birds that can only survive by being able to find dead and abandoned birds.
If we were able to protect every small bird species from nest to maturity we would be sounding the death knell for many predatory birds.

As hard as it is not to 'interfere' I'm afraid, exept in very special circumstances, we should I believe 'bite the bullit' and and let mother nature take her course.

There. Rant over.