What would you do if you saw a helpless baby bird? Would you try to save it, or would you let nature do its thing?
Well, one woman took in an abandoned baby finch, and in a selfless act of kindness, she nurtured him until he was old enough to be released into the wild.
Our story begins when strong winds blew a bird’s nest out from a tree and onto the ground. Luckily for the baby bird inside, he happened to land onto the porch of Susan’s house, an animal lover who was going to do whatever it took to make sure he was okay. Susan affectionately named the little guy Twerp, and she said:
“When I first found Twerp he was as big as my thumb. He was just a day old, he looked prehistoric!”
Twerp was still so tiny that he didn’t have any feathers, just a little bit of fuzz to cover his skin. He was incredibly vulnerable, and Susan knew that she had to do whatever she could to help.
The first thing Susan did was cup the baby bird in her hands to keep him warm and safe. The pair sat out on the porch for a while in the hopes that the mom would come looking for her baby, but she never did. It was then that Susan realized that she had a very large responsibility in her hands.
She bought Twerp into her nice warm house and quickly Googled how to rescue and feed a baby bird. But Susan was worried. The tiny guy only weighed somewhere between 13 and 14 grams. That’s the same as around three cubes of sugar!
“I didn’t think I could keep him alive,” Susan said, “it was touch and go.”
Following the information that she found on Google, Susan began to feed Twerp every fifteen minutes. She had to make little noises and nudge his beak to encourage him to open his mouth and take the food. It was long, tiring work, but Susan never gave up.
At four days old, Susan could see that Twerp was becoming stronger. By his sixth day on Earth, Twerp would open his mouth when he was hungry, waiting to be fed! In just six days he had already gone through such a transformation.
Twerp put on one to two grams of weight per day and began to grow tiny feathers.
“He looked like a tiny dinosaur.” Susan said affectionately.
At two weeks old, his feathers had completely come through. Susan noticed that he started to flap his wings and was becoming even stronger. Twerp would fly back and forth to his cage, and Susan knew it wouldn’t be long before he would be back with nature, so she began to take him outside.
Susan fed Twerp out on her porch so that he would get used to his surroundings. At four weeks old, the day came when Twerp was brave enough to fly into the unknown.
“I was feeding him on the porch and he flew up and was gone.” Susan said. “I thought ‘oh, he’s gone now.'”
But the little guy soon returned. That afternoon, he was back on Susan’s porch again, waiting to be fed! He trusted her so much that he would fly to Susan and perch on her hand as she fed him.
To get Susan’s attention, Twerp would tweet loudly, which Susan affectionately called ‘yelling’. He visited five or six times a day and would fly away when he was full up. As a gift to Twerp, Susan put a bird feeder in her garden, which the little guy visited for a couple of days.
After some time, Twerp learned how to fend for himself and stopped visiting. But Susan will always have the memories of what an amazing thing she did. She carried out a completely selfless act and saved the bird’s life.
“I’m still amazed that I raised him,” Susan said. “It’s hard to believe that I did that.”
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