The rescue
We found two jackdaw chicks in our garden and the parents were nowhere to be seen.
It was obvious that they were too young to fly and the nest nor parents were nowhere to be seen.
We could have left them to fight for themselves but our motherly instincts kicked in.
The feeding
After housing them in our cat’s old cage we tried feeding them but they were too distressed to be interested in anything.
After 2 days of no food we were getting very worried and researched what to feed them.
Peanut butter, worms, cat food… We tried everything.
I randomly made kissing sounds and they got very excited. They started crowing and opening their beaks fervently.
Finally it was possible to feed them. They seemed to prefer tuna flakes and were now feeding every hour throughout the day.
We also used a large plastic syringe to give them water.
After 5 days of feeding they had become very comfortable with us and had become very cuddly.
They enjoyed our presence and to walk around our arms.
By now they were cleaning their wings frequently.
Flight training
We discovered that if we lowered our arm while they were sitting on it, they were flapping their wings. It was almost as if they were testing their strength.
Suddenly they took off and flew a few meters to sit on a ledge.
Our jackdaw flight training had officially started!
Over the next few days we continued with frequent feeding and flight training.
4 days later they were able to fly 100m and sit in a tree for a while.
They always came back to feed and to socialise with us.
Next step was to teach them how to feed themselves.
We took them to a flower garden with soft ground and dug around a little bit until we found worms. It took the jackdaws a few moments but they got the hang of finding the worms and to chomp on them.
This made us very proud jackdaw parents indeed!
It’s now day 10 and the daily routine is to take them out of their cage early in the morning, feed them, socialise and continue flight training. 16 hours a day!
Come back to hear the rest of our jackdaw adventure!
