BABY BIRDS AND REHAB: Commitment can help save fallen 
baby birds ... we talk to an expert on Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

Spring is in the air and so are some baby birds as they 
prematurely exit their nests. If you find one grounded in 
your yard, resist rescue. The parents may be nearby. 

04 -- Mom and dad know how to raise baby birds a lot better 
than we do.

If the bird is a featherless nestling, return it to the nest. If 
it is a feathered, yet flightless fledgling, it may be under 
mom and dad's supervision. But if parents are absent, call 
a rehabilitator. 

20 -- You would work with that person on trying to get the bird 
to them. Keep in mind the rehabilitator's busy 24/7 tending to 
the wildlife they have - so don't expect them to come all the 
way to you. So you should probably make the point of, 'Okay. 
I'm committed to this; I'm going to see it through. So, I'm going 
to drive the bird even though it's an hour away to the 
rehabilitator.

Rehabilitators are not evenly distributed, and the nearest 
one might be a two hour drive away, and Cliff says 
rescuers need to be prepared for that.

20 -- And we have on the Parks and Wildlife website, a list of the 
licensed rehabilitators in the state. That is something that has 
to be permitted. You have to have state and federal permits to 
be a rehabilitator. You don't just take it down the road to 
grandma and hope that she can do it, because the reason 
they're permitted is they have to go through training, and they 
have to have the right facilities to be successful.

Find that list of wildlife rehabilitators listed by county on 
the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife ... I'm Cecilia Nasti.





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