Last night it was about 45 degrees and pouring rain when i found a fledgling sparrow that couldn't fly yet. It was lying in a puddle by my mailbox so i took it in and wrapped it in tissue paper with a hand warmer and put it in a box. Today it's moving all over and scared but only when you get real close. I bought all the stuff to make handfeeding food, but i think it's eating on it's own. I figured i would try my parakeet food and it's actually been eating it all day. I'm considering actually keeping this bird as it's an english sparrow and is invasive, making it technically legal for me to own. I don't really know a lot about them other than they eat a lot of insects and are from the finch family i believe. I have access to insects as i own several lizards, so i'm seriously considering keeping it for a bit and seeing if it takes to me. Any thoughts or info from anyone would be greatly appreciated.

I'm not sure what kind of handfeeding food you've got, but just to be sure: handfeeding food for parrots isn't suitable because their diet is very different. This page has a recipe for handfeeding food for sparrows in case it's needed: http://www.starlingtalk.com/babycare.htm#diet

This link has additional information on feeding rescued sparrows: http://www.starlingtalk.com/house_sparrows.htm It also has a link to pictures of baby sparrows at different ages so you can try to determine how old yours is. Millet spray is recommended for babies that are two to three weeks old, and millet is a major component of parakeet food, so it's completely appropriate.

It's very likely that mama sparrow is hanging around outside looking for her baby. Fledglings that are all by themselves usually haven't been abandoned and have a parent coming around regularly to feed them. So if the weather is better now you might want to put the baby back outside in the area where you found it, and keep an eye on it to see what happens. Here's more info on dealing with fledglings that you find: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/allaboutbi ... s/orphaned

Sort of on the same topic...a few days ago, I went out in my greenhouse and found a male Downy Woodpecker. I had left the big window open because I am curing squash in there. He flew in and couldn't get back out. He was on the floor in a corner trying to go through a closed window.
I was able to catch him just as I would Peach when I need to. It was a gift to hold and look closely at him. I let him out the door and he made very happy sounds flying away to the nearby pines.

I looked up a recipe for the formula on the web. I'm going to keep it for a bit since it's eating. It's still really cold out and looks like rain. I'm pretty sure it will be fine in a couple more days and if it hasn't calmed down i'm going to release it. If it starts to calm down i'll probably keep it because i'll probably never have a chance to own one again. I'll post some pics later but i believe it is just after first molt as it still has some pinfeathers visible and doesn't quite have all it's flight feathers. The strange thing about it is that i found it right next to a road where there are no bushes or trees within about 100 ft or so. And i'm not sure but it also seems pretty late in the year for it to be as young as it is.

If you can't release it right away, the parents may give up on it and leave the area. It's up to you whether you want to keep it or not, since it's perfectly legal to keep invasive species. But if you wnat to let it go and can't release it pretty soon, then you need to make sure it's fully able to feed itself before you let it go.

If you have a scale that weighs in grams, you can check its weight daily to make sure it's not losing weight. The bird isn't likely to sit on the scale voluntarily of course, but you can put a lightweight box on the scale, tare it, then put the bird in the box to get the weight.

I got some more millet today and it seems to like millet. I've already learned a couple things about it. The first is how to properly handle it. If you hold it just right it becomes pretty calm. The second is that for being half the size of my budgies this sparrow bite 10 times harder lols. It actually seems to enjoy the company of my budgies and vice versa. The budgies would sit on the edge of the bin i have it in and watch it and Amarillo was actually dancing for it. My budgies have been doing very well as well. They are now free flight in the back two rooms of my home. My pied is getting fat though even being free flight. She's starting to look like a bowling pin lols. Amarillo will now come when i call him and i have trained him to give kisses. Piper is still pretty reserved and prefers not to be handled, but will tolerate it on her terms. I've found their favorite food to be clover leaves and just plain grass for some reason. I'll post pics of all three of my avian friends when my tablet is done charging.

It would have been best to quarantine the sparrow from the other birds for a while - as a wild bird, it could have germs and/or parasites that the budgies aren't equipped to handle. They've obviously gotten within each other's breathing space, but it would still be a good idea to limit their contact for at least a month until you're sure the baby sparrow is healthy.

There's a very good reason that budgies like grass - in the wild, grass seed is their primary food! They probably chew on the grass stems too - there are some very good nutrients in grass. Budgies come from the same environment as cockatiels and have a similar diet, and a study on wild cockatiels found that they preferred unripe seed over hard dry mature seed. So it's definitely a bonus if there are unripe seed heads on the grass.

Is the pied really getting fat or just more relaxed and poufy now than she was before? The best way to judge a bird's fatness is to feel the area around the breastbone, but it's hard for an inexperienced person to judge. If she's too fat she needs to scale back on the calories a little bit lol. Being overweight is unhealthy for birds.

Since there are no trees or bushes, is it possible that he was blown away from the nest by the wind? If it was also a windy day maybe that's what happened.

How is the sparrow? Do you still have it?