Good day
A friend from work found a little bird that had fallen out of its nest. She has been hand rearing it, but does not know what kind of bird it is and I thought that you might be able to help with that.
She found the little bird about 1 ½ weeks ago in her garden in the Hillcrest area. She could not leave it on the ground, as it was nearby their swimming pool and they also have dogs on the property. So far she has been feeding it with food for hand-rearing of birds and it is doing great. It is growing well and will at some stage have to start having normal food, but since she is unsure of what type of bird it is, she does not know what to feed it.
I offered to take a couple of photos and to see if I can establish what it is. I’ve attached some of the photos and would appreciate if you could help us identify the bird.
Thank you.
Karen
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I would go with Arnia and say young Red-backed Mannikin. Looking at the bill it is certainly a seed-eating species. I assume that they would normally feed on grass seeds, as Bronze Mannikins do (Roberts 6 also states nectar from Schotia tree flowers!). Being a youngster, it will need some protein so a few insects would probably do no harm (to the bird at least).
Looks like one of the Mannikins, probably Bronze.
It looks like a Red-backed Mannikin so it is a seed-eater. So far the hand-rearing mix was a good call. It looks like it’s old enough to start putting small seeds or grasses with seeds in the cage while she continues with the hand-rearing mix. As it starts to eat more seeds she can reduce the other food. Also start putting water in a small, shallow dish in the cage.