How to Care For a Baby Humming Bird

If you are fortunate enough to have a humming bird with you, keep a cage ready for it. The cage should be large enough for the bird to move about freely inside it. You should not have a small cage as the bird might not feel comfortable if it is not able to move about freely. The food that you provide to the bird must also be healthy and desired by the bird. Birds of different species can have a preference for different types of foods so you should find out from a vet about the food habits of the humming bird before feeding it. You should also make sure that you protect the bird from diseases. The bird is not prone to many diseases but in case you find that it has fallen sick, you should take it to a vet immediately. If there are many other humming birds with you, you should take the sick bird to another place so that the others don’t get infected.

This is true in case you have a humming bird at home. But what happens when you find a baby on the streets, in the bushes or underneath a tree? You should know the right way to take care of the bird so that you can keep it alive. The best course open to you is to hand over the baby bid to the wildlife rescue team but before that you should whatever you can to keep it alive. If you are unaware of a few things, you might accidentally kill the bird

If possible, handle the bird with clean hands. If you have soap and water handy, then wash your hands clean and then pick up the baby. Dirty hands may soil the bird and also infect the bird later on.
When you find the bird, you can easily guess what its age might be if you are have ever studied the bird’s features before. When the baby is under 10 days old, it is usually greyish in color and has no feathers. It is extremely small and cannot even open its eyes. When it grows to about 15 days, it will slowly develop feathers that look like spikes. The baby will have all its feathers by the time it is 21 days old. But the tail feathers will still be short and the bill is very small too.
As with all baby birds, you should attempt to keep the baby humming bird warm before you do anything else. To do this, you can take a small plastic container and line it with tissue paper. Carefully put the baby bird in it. Now that you have given it a place to rest, you should give it warmth. You can either place a lamp or bulb near the container or place the container near the heater. Make sure that the baby receives enough warmth but not too much. The baby bird needs to be kept at about 90 degrees Fahrenheit. If you overheat the place, the bay will not be able to handle it and will die.
Now that the baby humming bird is warm, you can think of giving it some food. Make a dilute sugar solution and try to feed the baby. Take some of the solution in a small dropper and try to make the baby have it. Gently help the baby to put its bill into the dropper and you will see it having the liquid on its own. You can do this after every 30 minutes. Doing this for a day will help you to keep the bird alive until you can take it to the nearest vet or the wildlife center. If the baby is too small, you should just keep it warm and take it to a vet.

You should keep the baby humming bird alive if you can. You will surely feel very happy that you have saved a life.