…of a feather…

Well, the baby sparrows we’ve raised are now about 5 weeks old and flying around.  I had to take them to work with me for two weeks when we had to feed them every hour or so.  The first day I had them in the cage, the big one (we call it big brother in Japanese – Oniisan) flew out of the cage and up into the trees by the parking lot.

I figured him for a goner to the crow that was flying around, but when I went out to feed his little sister a couple hours later, he came flying down to me to get his share.

Well, today (about 10 days later) we figured we’d give them a taste of freedom and see what happened.  I opened the cage door and they flew into a big tree on the slope in front of our yard.  They hung out for a while but then flew around here and there.  They still aren’t very good flyers, (especially the smaller one) but they are getting better.

I was worried that they might decide not to come back, but when I got home from the dojo this evening, they were both waiting in the driveway.  It took a bit of coaxing before I could get them into the cage (I eventually had to just gently grab them and put them in.)

I’m glad they remembered where their food is.  Now, we just need to train them to eat from a bird feeder and then set it up in the Apricot tree in the yard.  Then, hopefully they can live in the wild even while we feed them.  I don’t know whether that is the best thing to do, but I just can’t keep them in a cage while I see their relatives flying so freely outside.