Kids found a young thrush

PogMoThoin

My daughter found a young thrush around the side of the house. At first she thought it was dead, but it moved suddenly when she bounced a ball near it. She then placed it in a shoebox to nurse it back to health. It seems to have taken to her as she can walk around with it on her head, seems quite content. It has become quite lively now and perches on top of the door. Its not able to fly, but jumps and flaps from the door to anyone who stands below. No signs of any ill health anymore.

Whats the best thing to do? We realise thrushes are insectivores. My daughter has been giving it oatflakes to nibble on. I've stopped her having contact with it now till we see whats best to do

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PogMoThoin

Its ok, I released it carefully, left it on the wall and it eventually made its way in2 a tree.

gerky

You did the right thing, it probably is just after fledging and its parents are most likely in the area looking for it.
It can take a while for them to be able to fully look after themselves but their parents will look after and feed them until they can.

PogMoThoin

Ok, just an update on this.

My wife looked outside 2day and saw a bullfinch feeding what looked like the young thrush we released. It was picking up food we'd left out and placing it in the thrushes mouth. Is this possible? Do birds adopt or help other species?

My camera's at the ready

gerky

Although not that common it does happen, the urge to feed is very strong in parent birds and what sometimes happens is if a bird has an unsuccessful year and looses its young for some reason or another, they sometimes transfer that need to parent over to another birds young.

Two of the main things that really drive the instinct are young calling and gaping(mouth wide open) I believe there has even been a few cases of birds transferring their parenting over to fish in a pond, basically the fish would come up and the birds would put food in their mouths.

Similar instincts occur in several species after the loss of young.

John Griffin

I agree with Gerky, although i never heard the fish story before:).

Just for the record i don't think you have a thrush, looks like a tree creeper to me from the photo you posted. Would love to see photos of the bullfinch feeding it.

gerky

Sorry I hadn't even seen the photo attachment, John's right that's a treecreeper, they also live in my area and are a shy little woodland bird that creep up and around tree trunks eating the insects they find.