A man and his wife rescue a baby bird after it is found at a construction site, and the transformation the bird goes through is amazing!
On an especially hot day this summer, a contractor named Roberto Navarez noticed something out of place when he was working on the Sacramento River East Levee project.
What he spotted was two baby birds sitting on the levee. They were in the path of a large bulldozer, and their parents were nowhere to be seen.
Lee Roork was working on the levee as a Quality Assurance Representative. He was an avid birder and knew that the best thing to do for the baby birds was to return them to the tree that they had fallen out of. Hopefully, one of the parents would return to the baby birds to take care of them.
The baby birds, both scrub jays, were placed in a small cardboard box and returned to their tree. The larger of the two birds ended up jumping from the box. And an adult scrub jay started immediately interacting with it. Then the adult bird and larger baby bird scurried away into a bush, leaving the smallest baby bird behind.
Lee kept checking on the small bird during the remainder of his workday, but the parents never came back for him. The baby scrub jay had been abandoned, so Lee knew he needed to intervene.
“I was certain the little bird wouldn’t survive another 24 hours unless someone helped it. It was in pretty bad shape, so I decided to try to help it, rather than leave it to die,” said Lee.
But instead of an official release with a proper goodbye, Blu flew out of the house one day when a neighbor had stopped by. The front door was slightly open, and Blu flew into some nearby trees. Susan shared that she had her final “conversation” with Blu as she jumped from tree to tree before joining some other scrub jays.
“This has been a unique experience, to say the least,” shared Lee when reflecting on their time with Blu. “I would never have brought this baby bird home unless I truly believed it was not going to make it. I had no idea how demanding these little guys could be and how much care they need. But I do believe we have done what we could to help her survive in the wild.”