One of the first pet birds my parents ever had was Bergie, an American Crow, that was found pushed out of its nest as a baby. (Named Bergie because my sister Angie couldn’t pronounce his real name-Birdie.) My dad brought it in to hand feed after unsuccessfully finding its nest. He was able to teach it to forage on its own for food and by weaning time was independent enough to start living outside. It would still fly to the kitchen window for food and play with my sister in the yard.
Bergie would follow the kids to the ball park behind the house on walks and his favorite thing to do would steal kid’s baseball caps that were thrown on the field after a win!
One day a news photographer snapped a photo of my sister playing with him in the front yard and they made it on the local newspaper. The article was picked up by the Associated Press and published nationwide. My great grandmother even saw it in her local newspaper in Crab Orchard, KY, in disbelief that that was her great grand daughter in the paper! The article created a lot of interest and unfortunately Bergie was never seen again after that day. My parents believe someone captured him after seeing the article. This didn’t stop my dad from helping out any wild bird in need and continued to hand raise and release a multitude of baby crows, as seen in these pictures.
Since then, there are regulations in place on helping wildlife. So always make sure to contact a licensed rehabilitation center if you're ever wanting to help out native species.
