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HELP: Baby Chaffinch

  • 14-06-2011 11:32am
    #1
    RonMexico
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,916 ✭✭✭


    Hi Guys,

    Was out in the garden yesterday and came across three baby chaffinches on the ground. Parents were nearby and feeding them but the birds were so small they can barely fly. Anyway I ended up having to intervene due to two magpies that were trying to get at them. I managed to get them to eat some soggy cereal last night but this morning the weakest one was dead. :(

    I spotted a chaffinch out in the garden this morning so I took out the other two and sure enough the strongest one scrambled out on hearing what I presume was the parent. I hung around spotted the male and female feeding this chick. The other one however was being ignored. I waited for about two hours but by this stage the parents and stronger chick had vanished. Then the magpies came back and tried to get at the remaining chick.

    I felt no option but to intervene again at this stage. I have the little guy here now in a box with some bedding so I am looking for advice as to what I can feed him. He is very quiet but alert. He has a lot of feathers and is preening them right now.

    Look a lot like this guy:

    Baby%20Chaffinch%205.JPG


Comments

  • #2
    Alun
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,499 ✭✭✭✭Alun


    Take a look at this thread for some inspiration ...

    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=66597913

    I don't really know the answer to the feeding question, but maybe contact the original poster in that thread to see what they fed their little orphan?


  • #3
    RonMexico
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,916 ✭✭✭RonMexico


    Cheers for that. Tried feeding him some soggy cereal (room temp) but he doesn't seem interested.

    How often should I be trying to feed him?


  • #4
    Scrappychimow
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,040 ✭✭✭Scrappychimow


    Maybe he would eat some mashed up boiled egg


  • #5
    Half-cocked
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,319 ✭✭✭Half-cocked


    If you can find any caterpillars he'll eat them. You'll need to put them into his mouth with a tweezers, as if you were an adult finch feeding him.


  • #6
    cscook
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 277 ✭✭cscook


    I remember my mother reared a baby jackdaw on mashed egg - and he lived on as a family pet till he was at least fourteen or fifteen - partial to egg to the last.
    I see our adult chaffinches eating sunflower seeds a lot, but they'd hardly be suitable for a little chick.
    Good luck to you :D.


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  • #7
    donal2000
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 150 ✭✭donal2000


    If you are in the area this guy could be worth contacting. Taken from a previous post here on boards.

    Phone Joseph Walsh at the Bird and Animal Sanctuary in Griffith Ave, Dublin 9 at 01 8371546. He used to take in all sorts of Birds including Owls.


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