Article content

It’s baby bird season in Metro Vancouver, as the region’s crow population nests, lays eggs, and raises a new generation of fledglings to survive in the urban wildlife community.

For the most part, they don’t need your help with any of this. But when you find a baby bird on the ground, flightless and vulnerable to all manner of predators, intervention may seem like the right idea.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or What do you do when you spot a baby crow on the ground? Leave it alone, says Wildlife Rescue Back to video

It generally isn’t, according to Madelyn Phillips, outpatient care coordinator for Wildlife Rescue Association of B.C. Before you scoop up a baby bird and remove it from its environment, be sure to survey the surrounding area. It may not be as helpless as it seems.

“Take a look for parents,” Phillips said. “That’s kind of number one: do you see any other birds around? And then, what does the bird look like? Does it look like a healthy bird? Is there bone? Is there blood?”

“People think a lot of the time that the bird has injured wings, but really the reason they think that is because it’s not able to fly.”