Our cat caught a baby Blackbird this morning. I managed to rescue it before it ended up being breakfast but now am unsure what to do. It does not seem too traumatised by the event. It bobs around and chirps a bit, and does try to fly, but just flaps a lot.

We put it in a lidless shoebox, back in the garden for the parents to attend to it, which they do so it isn't abandoned or orphaned, yet!. But the problem is it cannot fly, we don't know where the nest is so cannot put it back and we cannot leave it alone in the garden or anywhere locally on the ground as our, or one of the many local cats will get it. I read that blackbirds leave the nest, sometimes days before they can actually fly, to learn to forage, etc. Which in this heavy feline environment will mean certain death for it.

Anyone have any ideas?

So long as it's in the shade it will help. The parents will continue to come and feed it. Best to leave them to continue that way. Keep the cat well away if it needs to go out and hope that by the end of the day, they have been able to help it fly. Sometimes if left in peace they can support the baby to fly between them, or so I heard.

Maybe if you can turn the box on it's side so that if it want s to hide in bushes it can get out.(i.e. if you haven't already) then leave well alone for the parents to deal with it in peace.
Good luck, but tonight might be the turning point.Hope not though.

Any upstairs window sills you could stick the box to? (and leave a walking route out of the box so it doesn't go straight over the edge of the box. We put one on a first story roof and for some reasons the cats didn't bother it, once its started flying it stayed in the neighbourhood for quite a while and we used to see it regularly.

The parents invariably will come and feed it once they hear the cheeping.

This happened to us several years back- still remember the screams of the distressed magpie parents- awful. We wrestled the baby magpie from the cats jaws and same as you put it in a box.

Kept the cats in and put the box at the bottom of the tree they were nesting in. Next morning, the magpie had gone.

Weeks later we had three regular magpie visitors, I believe- or like to believe that the youngster survived.

The problem is, I can keep our cats in only for so long (they like going out, and play up when they can't), plus I can't keep the many neighbourhood cats away.

Leaving it out to its fate is not an option, because the cat has already caught and killed 2 of it's siblings in a week, I don't like the thought of possibly the last baby this family has ending up the same way. Our cat, our responsibility.

We had to let the cats out earlier, so placed him in a carrier, indoors, in a closed room for a couple of hours, but the rest of the time he has been outside, chirping away.

We may have to bring it in for the night, the neighbourhood tough cats prowl at night, so it is more of a risk than in the day. It goes without saying that obviously it needs as little human contact as possible, I don't want it to have any kind of attachment to us, nor be reliant on us, and most certainly not have the parents abandon it.

I really like the windowsill idea, my only concern is it keep trying 'test flights' and ending up back in the situation that got it here in the first place, when we are unable to stop any kitty consequences. It is less than ideal circumstances, and in the worst case, we can at least say we tried.

Hi. How is Tweety? What did you do in the end?