Helping Orphaned or Injured Wild Birds by Diane Scarazzini

Author:Diane Scarazzini
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC
Published: 1999-03-26T16:00:00+00:00

Feeding the Chicks

The Problem of Imprinting

Imprinting is a natural process that occurs with wild birds — to survive in the natural environment, each must learn the social skills of his own species. A nestling learns what species he is soon after hatching when he’s exposed to his parents and siblings. The term imprinting refers to this process of socialization.

Precocial species imprint at a much younger age than altricial species, usually within 36 hours of hatching. Altricial species, on the other hand, don’t usually imprint until after their sight develops but before they develop fear. The tamer and less frightened of people a wild bird is, the less likely he is to survive and function properly in his own environment.

When you hand-raise a baby bird, imprinting is sometimes unavoidable. He believes that you’re his parent. While this may sound cute and harmless, it’s potentially very dangerous for the bird. He may:

Seek out human contact rather than his own species.

Think that he can reproduce with a human — and while this sounds amusing, birds are killed because of what’s perceived as an “attack”on humans.

Be unable to reproduce with his own species, because he prefers species that look more like what he imprinted on.

Be unable to survive in his natural habitat.

To avoid imprinting or unnecessary taming:

Transfer the baby’s care to wildlife rehabilitators — they are experienced in such matters — as quickly as possible.

Minimize exposure to people. Only the caregiver should care for the bird.

Minimize handling of the bird. Since most precocial birds are self-feeders, handle them only when absolutely necessary.

If possible, place the bird with a sibling or another of the same species.

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