I, too, haven't had much luck trying to help birds.
When I was young, an owlet had fallen out of its tree. It just lied under a tree, and I saw it. I didn't know what to do- I thought my mom would forbid me from helping it if I said anything, and I knew it was alive. I picked it up, and carried it around the yard for a bit, thinking about what to do. The school bus was about to come, so as a sane young person, I put it in my backpack
edit: (zipper was open so that it could breathe, but not wide enough to make the owl obvious). I showed it to one of my friends on the bus and she told my teacher when we got to school. My teacher asked if it was stuffed and I said yes- my friend said no, it's a REAL OWL YOU SHOULD LOOK AT IT IT'S SO CUTE!!! Well, she made me take it to the nurse and I later got made fun of in front of most of my grade when we had a nature day. No good deed goes unpunished :lol:. Years later my nurse sent me a letter and a picture of the owl when the people released it.
Here is said picture- the owl was young when I got it, this must've been when it was an adult or close. It's a picture of the picture, so sorry about the flash:
And slightly closer:
Also, once I was at my cousin's barn. A baby bird fell out of its nest. I looked at it and sure enough, it was alive. However, one of the cats got to it before I could decide what to do with it. ANOTHER bird fell out of the same nest and I took that one. We figured its nest was up in the hay loft so I went up there (my cousin is afraid of birds) and there was this HUGE bird in the corner. It was chirping at me angrily. I set the bird down in several places and waited to see if any birds went up to it, but to no avail. I realized that its nest was really a hole above a stall, so I grabbed a box and precariously climbed up enough to push the baby bird back. Job done, right? Wrong. Its parents chirped angrily. It looked like THEY were the ones pushing it out of its nest. Oops...
This happened later. A kid at the barn loves the chickens. Well, one day, he left the door to the coop open. The chickens were all over the place- in with the goats, sheep, and cows. Well, we didn't want any of the chickens to get crushed or get out of one of the doors (it's possible). Well, as said, my cousin doesn't like birds. So, I got tasked with herding them. Chickens are so, so dumb. I had to go in with the cows and the first time, they RAN AFTER ME. I banged my knee on the gate from jumping on it trying to escape. :lol:
We (I) got all the chickens in their coop. Except for one PARTICULARLY stupid one. It went outside- I chased it through thorns and brambles. Once the door was wide open, and I herded him in a DIRECT path to the door. I swear to God he stared at it for a minute, then walked away. :shock:
I think someone's trying to tell me something about birds...hmmm...perhaps it's "You'll never win." :lol: