Katy Dickinson

Biff, the baby starling

Friday afternoon, we were adopted by a baby bird. My son Paul saw a ball of grey brown fuzz on the bricks outside of our backdoor and realized it was a half fledged baby bird. Because we live on the Guadalupe River, there are a great many cats in our area so I put the little guy in a box and we went to look up wild bird care on the web. I think he is a European starling and I found an excellent website: Starling Talk on how to care for them. We have not been able to contact the wildlife rescue person for birds in our area so we have been taking care of the baby as best we could. For now, we are calling him Biff.

Biff probably fell from the big ash tree over where we found him but we haven't been able to locate any nest. His feathers were only starting to come out of the sheath and he was very red and unresponsive when we first found him. The website said first to get him warm and rehydrate him. We followed the instructions and put drops of Karo corn syrup and water with a little salt on top of his beak until he sucked it in. He eventually started begging for food. He is eating smashed up cat food, eggs, and applesauce (with a drop of bird vitamins once a day). Biff eats every hour for half of the day but sleeps at night. He looks like a drab ball of fuzz except when he opens his yellow beak so that you can see down into his big red mouth. He feet look like delicate pink threads.

Biff is doing fine for now. We took him to church with us this morning (since he needs to be fed regularly no matter what our schedule is) and Biff got blessed by our priest. He was 0.4 ounces the first day, 0.5 oz. the second day, and 0.6 oz. today. Biff now weighs as much as 3 U.S. quarter coins. He sleeps on a half sheet of crumpled paper towel in a plastic bowl on a heating pad in a small cardboard box. Biff poops regularly and tries to back up each time so that the poop goes outside of his nest. His white baby fuzz is mostly gone and his new feathers are almost out of their sheaths. He cheeps when he is hungry, even when he is asleep.

Our 12-year-old grey cockatiel, Princess Birdie, does not seem to mind Biff. She observes him from her big cage above my desk. Biff's box is on the file top next to the window so he can get some sun and listen to birds outside. My daughter Jessica has the first day of her summer job tomorrow but if she gets permission, she is going to take Biff in to work. Biff is going to work with me tomorrow.

Here are some early Biff pictures:

Biff the starling on hand:

Biff the starling eating:

Biff the starling wanting more food:

Images Copyright 2007 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 11:39PM Jun 03, 2007 by katysblog in Home & Family  |  Comments[2]

4 inches growth this year

I remember that exactly a year ago, on 3 June 2006, I wrote a blog entry in which I said that my son Paul and I were exactly the same height. Today, at almost-15-years, he is 5'10", four inches taller that me! Paul is delighted to be so tall already and looking forward to growing past 6' soon.

Posted at 10:38PM Jun 03, 2007 by katysblog in Home & Family  |