Found a baby-bird in my garden yesterday, but I don't know how to get it to open it's bill ? I just can't let it die from hunger.

Thanks for all advice provided.

Taking care of a baby bird is quite a job... the best thing is to see if its parents will take it back and feed it. You should put it back in the garden near where you found it but in a safe place where cats etc can't get to it. Then observe from a distance to see if the parents come.

Does it have all its feathers and can it fly? As if its very small with hardly any feathers and the parents will not take it back it probably needs to go to a wildlife centre.

They do not survive long without food, you can offer it a small amount of hard boiled egg that has been crushed up and mixed with water. But don't try to force the food into its beak unless you know how to do it as it can choke.

I've had several, in various stages of plumage :-)

Usually I feed them bread soaked in a bit of water or the mealy worms I buy at the bird shop in Belastie road. I have not lost a bird... Usually I pry the beak open and stick the food in with the tweezers. Quite deep into the throat, otherwise they'll cough it back up. Good luck, email me if you need more help.

Maybe you should try calling a pet shop specialising in birds or the AVA if you can't get it to eat. They should be able to offer suggestions on what to do.

Do you know what kind of bird it is? If it eats only insects, then you will not be able to help it. If it eats worms and grubs, you might have some chance of helping. Like Caren says you have to hold things above its beak to feed it and drop into its gullet. You could try to give it water too.

I have rescued a couple of birds now and the survival rate without the parents is low. If the bird makes it through the next three days, then it has a chance of survival...however, it is most likely that without the parents and coupled with shock that it will not pull through - sorry to sound negative.

All but one of the birds I rescued were minah (mynah) birds, you know the little black birds with the yellow beak. Cheeky birds. Once one fell out of the nest in my roof. It broke a leg, which I set and splinted with a match stick, and it had no feathers. Lots of lice though. I gave it a bath in a bowl of Dettol solution which took care of those. It couldn't hold its head up it was so weak. But day by day, it got stronger. I dipped the bread in water so it would get water in at the same time. Sometimes I made the kids dig around in the garden for worms. Basically minah birds will eat anything... I tried papaya too, because someone said they are fruit eaters, but I might as well not have tried. Worms were definitely the favourite. Sounds gross, but you get used to it..!

Once feathers start growing it will amaze you how fast they do grow. A quarter of an inch a day, I kid you not! Once it was well enough to move around it lived on our patio and sometimes when we came home we'd have to call it back from the trees. Then one day it joined some other birds and didn't come back. Great to return it to nature. We still recognised it for a long time due to its limp from the broken leg, but it never held him back.

Really, the odds aren't that bad, give it a go and it'll be a very satisfying experience.

How is the bird, did it survive?