Protect Baby Birds

    I saw two little birds in the nest near my house which is unprotected without their parents near them.  While I was looking at them I realized that the mom bird was watching me, just to make sure I wasn't getting to close to her babies. While she was observing me, she was looking for food to give to them. She approached the nest and fed her babies. She was trying to protect them from predators.

    Later in the day I went back to check if they were ok. I noticed that one little bird was dead on the floor. The neighbor's cat reached the nest and caught one of the birds.  I was really sad when I saw the baby bird dead on the floor.  I looked at the mom bird and I noticed that she was more alert to protect the only surviving bird. She was attacking any animal that was trying to approach the nest including Dive-bombing at me a couple of times.

    I started to think what I could do to help her protect the only surviving bird. I know if I touch the baby or the nest she will smell my odor andshe will reject the baby and will not come back to the nest. ( That's not true). I can touch the nest and the birds without problems.  Birds do not recognize their young by smell, but by their appearance and by their sound. They will continue to feed their babies, even after someone touched the little birds.

    In that moment I had so many questions on my mind. Should I take the baby bird home? It wouldn't be a good idea to move the birds from the nest. Birds have a better chance of surviving under its own parents' care than under human care with the exception of trained experts. Never take them home.

    Should I feed the baby bird?  Feeding the baby bird can be dangerous and can cause the death of the bird. Baby birds need a special diet high in protein to help them grow quickly.

    Should I move the nest from the tree? Leave the nest and the bird where you found them because wild animals must remain in the wild in order to survive, unless the bird is injured or abandoned by the mother. In this case I recommend you to contact a Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. They have the knowledge in how to take care of the birds in a proper way than regular people.

    After finding out all this information I learned that I had to leave the baby bird in the nest. The cat was still there stocking the nest.  My neighbor gave me some suggestions.

    A temporary solution to this problem would be to use an automatic sprinkler near the tree. This would scare the cat and keep it away for awhile.  Another solution my neighbor suggested was to build an enclosure near the tree.  One of the best solutions that the neighbor and I found was to keep the cat indoors as long as we could. So that was what the neighbor and I did.