Just this evening, I had a “Kingdom moment,” especially for someone who has such a soft spot for orphans. I went out the door for a walk with my husband and only got about 30 yards down the street when we noticed a very loudly squawking, almost grown baby bird sitting in the middle of the street. I went out into the street to see what all the commotion was about and as soon as he saw me, he started running toward me as if to say, “Are you my mother?”
A car turned onto our street, so doing what any good mother bird would do, I scooped up the trusting little feathery friend, who seemed completely comfortable with the idea. He actually perched completely willingly on my finger, squawking for food. I knew this because he kept opening his little mouth wide as baby birds do when they want a yummy bug or worm snack.
My husband ran into our house to see if he could scare up one of the many moths flitting about our house this time of year, but he came out empty handed. In the mean time, I began lightly whistling at the bird, trying to get him to calm down. It worked. He grew quiet, listening to me as long as I made noise. He was really the cutest thing, with little frizzy baby feathers sticking out from his developing adult feathers.
The little guy came back for a feeding this morning!
Our neighbor, packing for a fishing trip tomorrow, got in on all the commotion and ran into his house to grab his night crawlers (big, fat worms). He brought them out and we pinched a couple of them into bite-sized pieces and fed the starving little guy, who gobbled them up like he hadn’t had a meal in days. After that I took him, still perched happily on my finger, over to the ditch in our yard and gave him a big drink by dropping water down his throat off my fingers. He drank happily for several minutes.
Finally, I found a nice safe tree, out of the reach of the 50 cats in our neighborhood (including our own two vicious killers), and perched him in the branches. At this point, his squawking had completely stopped, and he seemed finally content.
We went for our walk, and checked on him about 20 minutes later. He was exactly where we left him, comfortably settled in for the night with his eyes closed. It was such a touching moment to realize that we have been sought out and trusted to take care of such a helpless and fragile little guy.
Tonight was truly a beautiful glimpse into the future Kingdom when (I believe) we will be able to fully interact with all sorts of animals with total trust. Tomorrow we will check our new little adoptee and see if he needs more assistance making his way into the world. After all, that’s what any good mother bird would do.
End of day report: Baby bird comes every 60 to 90 minutes for feedings all day. I guess it’s true that a bird eats his weight in food. I have new respect for those mama birds—feeding the little ones must be a full time job! Every time he is hungry now he flies up to my office window and announces himself (yes, he figured out where my office is). As soon as I go outside, he flies right up and lands on me. Thanks to Google, now we’re feeding him mealy worms and cherries! Hope he gets a little more independent soon.