Taught Baby Birds How to Fly

Why couldn't they have learned about 2 hours ago?

I finally gave up on finding a piece of trim that matched the rest of the eaves. I gave up and decided to use some crown molding. In the mean time, birds built a nest and hatched some little eggies. Before replacing the trim, we banged around a lot, hoping to scare the birds off. The Mommie bird flew off, and the babies were left chirping in the depths of the attic.

Poor things were probably deaf by the time I was done nailing up the trim. Then I went to the attic and worked for about an hour in the heat and dust to pull off a big piece of plywood from the floor. I lifted it like and there are our baby birdies, and their nest. I grabbed the first one. It thought it was a wildcat. The second had me duckwalking, chasing it around the attic floor until it got cornered. We put the birdies in a box and covered it so they couldn't hop out.

The Nature Center explained that handling birds does not make the mother bird reject them. It's just an urban ledgend. We nailed a box containing the nest to a safe spot high up a tree. Then I poured the baby birds into the nest. I could hear their little toenails backpeddaling all the way down the cardboard box! Next plan: a few inches of free fall into the nest, and then just chirp for the mommie bird. But, WHOOSH! they flew away instead! They lost altitude for a few yards, and then gained it back.

Why couldn't they have figured that out a few hours ago, before I was sweating and sneezing in the attic? Probably because they needed to be kicked out of the nest. Oh, well, at least it gave me a chance to remove the multiple nests that were in the eaves.