Morning,
First time poster.
Can the fledgling in the picture please be identified. Was found yesterday (21/12) by a friend who found 3 fledglings on the ground after falling out of the nest. Located in Wagga Wagga NSW.
WIRES wouldnt take them due to the possibilty they are introduced.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
It appears to be a Common Blackbird, an introduced (non-native) species.
Get some worms from the garden, berries and fruit, maybe sultanas or broken up grapes. DO NOT FEED THEM BREAD. You could also try mealworms.
Peter
Blackbird pie perhaps?
A wonderful songster though, they are occasionally kept as aviary birds but need lots of live food.
Yes, blackbirds are great songsters, zosterops, but I'd suggest that if it's songsters you want then try protecting or re-establishing habitat that will attract Australian songsters such as grey shrikethrushes, golden whistlers & rufous whistlers. I favour pacman's humane approach to this young blackbird.
I was by no means propounding the blackbird's vocal capabilities to be superior to that of native songsters or discounting the abilities thereof and my native garden does indeed attract an array of indigenous birdlife.
Not sure of the practical merits of culling a few chicks in the name of conservation (in the absence of a coordinated large-scale eradication campaign, if such an exercise is even feasible or indeed even warranted) as the parents are probably re-nesting and urban populations of this species are often very dense in the south east (this species being predominately ground-dwelling is particularly heavily predated by cats and it seems to have little impact on its overall abundance, multiple broods in a year being common with replacement clutches often being laid immediately and so it seems to be well-adapted to sustain considerable reproductive losses), but it's up to you.
I help animals in need. They are just trying to survive in a tough world like we are. After all we are also feral introduced animals to this land and have done WAY more damage than a few introduced birds. (native Australians excluded)
Notice also the word HUMANely.
Aboriginal Australian people's fire management practices changed the Australian landscape forever, favouring some species yet displacing and exterminating others. Not to mention hunting pressures and dingo introduction.
I suppose a considered approach is reasonable, richman. The exotic species have been here a long time and we introduced them and we are ourselves introduced. The exotics become integrated into local ecosystems, times are tough and species adapt as best they can, be it a Little Eagle taking a rabbit or an Orange-bellied parrot being dependent mainly on European-native sea rocket. Blackbirds are probably featured in the diet of native raptors. Currawongs certainly like the eggs and nestlings.
I am not excusing the shortcomings of the aboriginal methods I was merely excluding them from the 'feral introduced' label given their incredibly lengthy inhabitation timeline.