I don't have an answer for you. I'm new at this, but how stressful for you to watch. Good Luck. Keep us posted.

Each day he survives the night increases his chance of flying. Do you know how many days apart he is from his siblings? I would just hold tight and see what happens, There is of course the chance that something is wrong but it would be hard to tell without capturing the little guy and inspecting his feathers, but it should be done by an expert :)

Last year I had a baby try to fledge on day 14, he unknowingly spent the night in our garage! I put him back in the box the next morning but he and another attempted to fledge and neither could fly. I put them both back in the box and added an hole reducer so they couldn't get out but mom and dad could still feed them. The next morning I took the hole reducer off. There were four in the box and they all fledged that day (day 16), two could fly ok, one could fly but not very well and that poor little guy couldn't fly a lick. At this point I didn't want to put him back in the box by himself so I let him be. I kept finding him on the ground and would put him in a tree. I knew he was going to spend that first night on the ground and I felt bad but I did all I could. We had a terrible rain storm that night and I was sure he wouldn't make it but a week later I saw the fledglings on the wires out front and all four were there!! Some just cannot fly when they fledge. While they do need to get up into the trees if they are on the ground as long as there are no predators that would find them, they can survive. Just because they cannot fly at fledging time doesn't mean they won't ever fly, they just need more feather growth for liftoff.

Donna

thank you for the helpful info! i feel better. hope he found a high place overnight. we have lots of stray cats.

what about the mama bird? how long will she protect him? if she is gone, is the baby gone?

The adults won't forget about the one on the ground, they will keep feeding it and keep trying to get it in a tree. Eventually it will be strong enough for lift off as long as a predator doesn't get it. That is the real threat now. Once it is in the trees it is a bit safer anyway.

Donna