Edmonton family launches into rescue mode after discovering baby robin on doorstep

Katy Splane and her family couldn't believe their eyes when they saw what was near the front door of their Edmonton home Sunday.

It was a "little, completely naked, see-through baby robin on the front step," said Splane.

Her husband, Rich, put the inch-long baby in a small bowl with some grass clippings.

"It didn't look like it was going to make it," Splane said.

Unsure what to do with it, she made an appeal to Facebook friends. One told her to call the Wildlife Rehabilitation Society of Edmonton.

When she reached them, they told her to get the bird to an emergency vet clinic. By then, the baby robin was making a lot of noise.

Gave it water with an eyedropper

"On line it says don't feed baby birds water, but it was just hollering," said Splane. "It was so tiny but it was obviously needing something to eat or drink, so with the eyedropper we gave him just tiny, tiny bits of water, put him on a hot water bottle with a towel and then drove him to the emergency vet [clinic]."

The baby bird was taken in immediately.

"They basically just whisked him off right away and gave him basically baby bird formula," she said.

Splane was told the bird would stay at the clinic until the wildlife society comes to get it.

If all goes well and the bird survives, it will be placed with an adoptive "mom," she said.

Splane said she's not sure how the baby ended up on their front step because there are no trees nearby.

"One of the theories ... possibly there was a bird that was transporting it, like a bird of prey of some kind," she said.

Splane and her family did the right thing, according to wildlife biologist Chris Fisher, author of the book Birds of Alberta.

"That one was so underdeveloped" that it wouldn't be able to regulate its own body temperature, he said. "It's not going to be able to do anything by itself."

But Fisher said the best thing to do with most baby birds out of the nest is to leave them alone.

If there is a cat nearby or some other threat, put them on a branch, he suggested.

Laws protect bird nests

If you stumble upon a nest with eggs or babies, provincial and federal regulations prohibit moving it. There are exceptions for a number of birds common to Alberta that are not native to the province, like pigeons, crows and magpies, but regulations apply to the rest.

"There are regulatory rules — both federal and provincial — that actually protect virtually every active nest in the province of Alberta," Fisher said.

Even though there's little chance of getting caught moving a nest, there are some strong moral reasons for leaving nature alone, Fisher said.

"Moving an active nest is pretty much tantamount to eliminating the viability of that nest," he said. "It's probably not going to survive the move.

"So while there aren't many bird police out there, if ... at all possible, let it be."