My nephew found a wild bird in his grandmother's yard this afternoon. Before I was able to offer any advice, my nephew took it upon himself to enclose the bird in a small travel terrarium. It's young, it has its feathers, but it cannot fly. We had a very torrential storm last night, I'm assuming it was knocked out of its home in a tree or a gutter. The bird is one of the common brown colored Michigan sparrows.
Is there anything I can do? There are too many different nests to know where it came from. I really feel bad for the bird. Should I just let it loose in a wooded area? Should I feed it, or will that affect its wild behavior? I don't want it to acclimate to human care so much that it cannot survive on its own. But if it's a lost cause no matter how I slice the pie, well, I'll feel terrible.
