Piper The Black-Headed Grosbeak

All babies are adorable, sweet, and fun to raise, but some truly just steal your heart. Piper is one of those heart-stealers. This little squirt came in after being blown out of a very high nest in a pine tree. After trying to re-nest and locate parents, Piper came to Native Bird Care in Sisters, Oregon, for rehabilitation care. Black-headed grosbeaks take longer to rehab than other baby birds because of their heavy bills, which take time to develop and become hard enough to crack the seeds and cones that they will be eating.

Piper was thin, so she clearly was shy of adequate nutrition. Many of our birds start out with hydration and then move on to an easily digestible food like EmerAid Intensive Care Carnivore. It mixes to a smooth, easy-to-feed consistency, and it has increased protein that is needed for baby birds. All of the baby birds start with this intensive care food before moving on to the Formula for Orphaned Nesting Songbirds (FONS) diet. Piper took a little extra work though as she was particularly small, but, in the end, she thrived. After improving her flight skills and food scavenging skills in an outside aviary, she was released. Initially, she was let out on a soft release at the rehabilitation center. There are a lot of songbirds though, and she soon took up with a family of other black-headed grosbeaks.

Posted on March 12, 2018