11/06/2026
Every evening at the moment is a late finish, so last night we decided to pop out and get a takeaway - and came back with this!
He is a fledgling crow. His situation is an illustration of how every fledgling thought to need rescuing has to be judged on its own merits.
I did toy with leaving him in situ as on the face of it he could just be a normal fledgling doing the normal fledgling thing of being on the ground for a few days whilst his parents tend to him and he learns to fly - but decided to take him in for the following reasons:
1. It was dusk when I first saw him and thought he looked a bit lost - but left him in the hope that he would vanish and find safety for the night. We returned around 15 minutes later and he was still in the same place, looking distressed that he couldn’t scale a high wall.
2. When I approached him, he actually came towards me rather than away from me. A healthy fledgling should hop or run away from a human. He made no attempt to flap away either.
3. Many of his feathers are still in pin (in their ‘sheaths’) and his tail is rather short - meaning that he may have fledged rather prematurely or even been blown out of his nest tree.
4. There were no other crows around. No crows in the trees above, no calling from him or other birds. In the daytime this may be quite normal, but as it was almost dark it was very odd for him to be completely alone.
5. The area he was in was very open with no undergrowth, shrubbery, or other place for him to hide overnight. I did think initially that I would place him on or over the high wall, but once on the ground behind it he would be completely inaccessible - and had there been other crows around that I felt were taking care of him I may have done this - but I felt that he would be in the same situation, alone, and on the inaccessible side of the wall.
6. The time of day: At dusk, fledglings should seek cover - or be shepherded there by their parents - but this guy was just out in the open as it started to get dark, looking forlorn.
So, on balance I made the decision to take him in - which is obviously always a last resort. If families can be kept together that is always the preference, but realistically this crow would probably have been predated overnight. My feeling is that given his underdevelopment, his parents had decided that he was a ‘lost cause’ and they probably had other stronger fledglings to put their resources into.
It is so important to take all circumstances into consideration when dealing with fledglings. The vast majority of cases with fledglings are false alarms, and everything is just fine - but please always check with a rescue if you’re unsure.
