10 Well Known Facts You Thought Were True (That Actually Aren't)

9. Baby Birds Will Be Rejected By Their Mothers If You Handle Them

Your own mother will probably have told you this at some point: if you see a baby bird, fallen from its nest, don€™t pick it up because its mother won€™t let in back in or go anywhere near it if she can smell that human stink on her kid. It€™s complete nonsense, of course. As a rule, birds have severely underdeveloped olfactory senses. They wouldn€™t be able to use it in flight, as conflicting wind currents would make it impossible to smell much anyway, so it€™d be useless in hunting or defending themselves from other predators in the air. Their terrible sense of smell will prevent them from even noticing that you€™ve picked up their children, never mind put them off so much that they reject the sprog outright. Added to that though €“ baby birds fall out of nests all the time, given that many nests are off the ground and they can€™t actually fly until they€™re about two weeks old or more, and their parents can€™t exactly pick them up and place them back where they€™re safe. Birds, you may have noticed, aren€™t great with manual dexterity or heavy lifting. It€™s that whole lack of arms and hands thing they have going on. In fact, if you find a baby bird €“ one without feathers, a hatchling or nestling €“ and you know where the nest is, the best thing to do is to return it there as soon as possible. Never try to raise the little creature yourself, though. It€™s illegal in many jurisdictions, but more than that, chances are it won€™t survive: and if it does, it€™ll have missed out on vital lessons it should have learned from its parents, and won€™t last long in the wild if it escapes.