Interfering Once Again In Western Scrub Jay Family Rearing Practices

Left: Western Scrub Jay fledgling, sitting on the ground in the neighbor's yard, trying to remain absolutely motionless, and looking pretty miserable.
Left: The same fledgling, just after I moved it to my back porch. A few minutes later it attempted to fly away with its mom, and fell to the cement below. Later, with nightfall, it scurried away to a location unknown. I hope it is uninjured. Tomorrow, we'll see what happens.


My understanding of fledgling Western Scrub Jays is that they frequently suffer through a period in late spring when they can't quite fly, are prone to injury, and thus must seek shelter on the ground while gaining sufficient strength to fly. Their parents buzz around, provide food, and provide what protection they can from predators. The general advice is not to handle them, but let them be, if at all possible.

I felt I had to intervene in this case because there is a cat that lives next door. During the day, the bird had moved from the area near the neighbors' garbage cans, where it had a fighting chance to find shelter, to a pathway where it was completely exposed. Indeed, five minutes after I threw a towel over the fledgling and moved it to my porch, the neighbor arrived with both her cat and dog in tow. The neighbor is cooperative: she promised to keep her cat in tonight. I temporarily plugged a hole in the fence where her cat likes to enter my yard. My yard is safer than next door neighbor's, but the safety is relative: possums, raccoons, rats and skunks have been known to enter my yard at night.

The bird was traumatized by all this unfamiliar handling, I'm sure. When Mama Scrub Jay came to the porch, fed the fledgling, and departed, the fledgling attempted to follow and fell to the concrete below. After night fell, the bird sought shelter, probably in some ivy, and vanished from view. I suspended sprinkling there tonight to keep the bird from getting wet. I pray the bird is uninjured and will have a restful night's sleep. I pray the parents will return in the morning to continue to aid their charge. And I hope I have the wisdom to tamper just enough, but not too much, and thus spoil a bird-rearing process almost complete....