Rio 2 -Fledge?-

Previous story of Rio(the bird's name)

I went to Ogawa coffee with my friends yesterday
found two bird chicks on a street in downtown Boston
one of them died and another one looked so weak.
picked and protect the chick from danger.
took care of this baby bird at home
I went to Brazilian store after rescued this bird, so named her in Portuguese
"Ogawa" means "a small river" in Japanese, so I named it "Rio" in Portuguese.
it has been a week since I rescued Rio and she has been looking so much better and recovered.
I was gathering information about the wild sparrow and found out that mother birds forget her babies if she hasn't seen them for a week. (such a surprise!)
time is matter!!!
I went to Boston downtown where weaken Rio was found last week…
time to get her back to nature???

As you can see in the picture above, I put a small box where Rio stays and left it for a while as I wish the mother finds her. If they meet together, I was ready to say goodbye and get Rio back to nature.

I heard sparrows chirping around me but couldn't figure out that those were her brothers or sisters or mother...I just tried to stay away from Rio because wild birds are afraid of humans.

After 2 hours of bird watching, I couldn't see any birds are chirping each other or flying around Rio.

As I researched on the Internet, baby birds still need support to find and eat food after fledging. This is why I still have to feed Rio with a skewer. Rio cannot pick up food and she drops food on the ground. Sometimes Rio cannot even swallow food, so I push it with a skewer.

This situation definitely explains that Rio cannot survive if her mother doesn't find Rio again. However, Rio grows so fast this past week. She sometimes sneak out from a box when I open it to feed her. Rio used to fly my knee hight, but she made it to high loft celling today. What wild!

After Rio failed her “prison break" in my apartment, she looked breathing hard with her shoulder. (You must be exhausted, huh?) I gave my finger gently and Then Rio hoped on it as if saying "I can’t make it…". It's always easy to get Rio back to the box. My life with Rio has been like this all day every day this past week.

I know Rio has been like my pet, but it is not. However, I will miss for sure the fact that Rio responses and chirps after I call her name "Rio". However, I am not supposed to leave a wild bird in my place.

I asked a person for more information at a pet shop, but she said animal rescues usually put them down. That means that she has few options to survive her life and it all depends on my decision. My ego might have saved Rio's life and may change her fate in future. However, I don't know the answer for this situation. I made an action on the day I went to Ogawa coffee in Boston because I thought that was my best decision. I will continue to support her and figure out what the best option is for Rio.