Hi All,
I'm new here and wanted to share a story about an experience my husband and I just had.
For the past 2 days, we have had 2 mockingbirds on our patio. They have been SO noisy and have been appearing constantly outside our sliding glass door, almost like they were trying to tell us something.
Last evening I was grilling and walked to the side of the house. There I saw a baby mockingbird in the low part of the yard where the extra water drains off. It must have fallen out of its nest. I can only think the adults must have been in a panic, having lost their baby. I told my husband we just couldn't leave the baby and found some moss (for planting), scrunched it together and formed a nest of sorts and placed it in our tree by the patio. I gathered the baby in a paper towel, handed it off to my husband and he placed it in the makeshift nest. We have seen both parents, they 'keep watch' and the mother feeds him. I am wondering if there is another nest with more babies somewhere and if it is an unusual thing for a mother bird to 'accept' a baby after it has been out of the nest. I am also wondering how old the babies are before they are able to fly and am hoping that the baby we saved will be able to fly when the time comes.
Any comments will be appreciated.

Hi Laurie! Welcome to the site and thank you so much for sharing such a fantastic rescue story with us! My apologies for the delay in responding as I have been out of town for several days but let's see if some answers can be provided.

First of all, I must confess that I have never had anything like this happen. The fact that the parents were seemingly alerting you is fascinating. You and your husband certainly must have done a good job with your temporary bird nest for the parents to continue caring for the baby out of their own nest. Perhaps there are other babies, usually they have 3-5 in a brood, but it seems highly unlikely to me that they would abandon the others to keep watch on this one. Generally if something happens of this nature, the poor guy who came out of the nest has to fend for himself. So it seems to me that he may be an only child. Have you seen the parent birds fly in and out of any other trees nearby? Maybe if you keep an eye on them you might be able to pinpoint another nest, but again, if their focus is on your nest, then that is probably the only one with babies in it.

Baby mockingbirds fledge in 11-13 days, meaning you will know within a week to 10 days if he is going to fly or not. They grow incredibly fast! You can keep on eye on the progress of how his wings are growing by simply peeking on him. The parents will be nearby gathering bugs for him and will scold you and may even dive bomb you, but it is not a bad idea to check in once a day and see how the little guy is growing up. Plus it makes for a great photo op!

As far as parents not accepting a baby after a human has touched it, there are 2 schools of thought on that. One says that is definitely true, never ever touch a baby. The other says that is an old wives tale. I was raised according to the first school so I don't touch them, but I have read many accounts of tales like yours where it works out just fine! I suppose the type of bird it is makes a difference too. It seems to me from your story that the parents had no problem accepting the baby back after you had delicately handled it.

I hope that perhaps some of this information helps you out. It rather seems to me that you both did just the right thing and that it is going to work out just fine. Should you happen to notice that the parents are no longer coming and your baby is still in the nest, then there are agencies you can contact that will take in baby birds and care for them the rest of the time they are developing, although I don't think you will need to call them!

Thank you again for sharing your terrific story and please let us know what the outcome is!