Hiya Lovely. Our dearest Bub did NOT die. She is still very much alive and Grackle-ish! :-) We have had other Grackle youngsters die soon after arrival but Bub is going strong since her arrival in 2006. :-) Riboflavin .... I do not know of any *real* dose for the ~curled toe paralysis~ but usually one can get or order the 100 mg. tablets. Generally I mix in 1/8 of a 100 mg. tablet with the baby cereal I feed and use that with each feeding. What they do not need gets pooped out. ( Actually peed out but no matter....) Depending on how severe the problem is ... the paralysis or weakness will reverse within a few days to a week. How much of a baby is your crow? Depending on the age they need to be fed between every 15 minutes to every hour from about 5:00 AM to about 10:00 PM. I use Nutri-Start baby bird cereal mixed 50 /50 with a jarred baby food like Gerber's strained beef or strained turkey. Cut the riboflavin tablet into 1/4s then 1/2 those pieces again. Place the 1/8 piece in a piece of folded wax paper and crush it by rolling a can of dog food or other canned product over it. Mix this powder in with your baby cereal mixture. It will become a bright yellow. Please be warned that the baby's poop will become bright yellow too and it DOES STAIN anything it comes in contact with. Have you ever fed a baby bird? That is to say place food in the crop? If not it may be best to contact an avian veterinarian to get some advice on how to do this or get in touch with a rehabber to take over. Crows are a native species and for the long term one should not keep them without a federal permit. They may become imprinted on you and never be able to be released. Having said that ... How very kind of you to care enough to try to save the little crow! :-) If you are unable to contact an outside source of help ... I can talk you through how to tube feed a baby bird if you do not know how to do this. I'll check in at about 7:00PM EST. OK? Thanks for taking the time to care! C3D

Hi vieja, I know what you mean, the birds will eat anything. My wife saw a bluejay kill a mouse and fly off with it! We're rebuilding the pond at our house, and are planning on lots of places for the fish to hide, but I still expect some casualties...

I use tube feeders hanging from a double shepherd's-crook. On the ground around the pole, I have wall about 8 inches high and about 7 feet in diameter to contain the fallen seed. (The squirrels and ground-feeding birds tend to swish it around.) When grackles and starlings show up, I put a cover over the "seed circle" (which I made in two semi-circular pieces) for a week or two. The best material for this cover is 1/4-inch wire mesh (called 'hardware cloth'). It must fit snugly so that small birds don't sneak in and get trapped. Click on the picture below for a photo gallery with details: Back Feeders Usually, grackles and starlings find it awkward to use the tube feeders. (The shorter the pegs, the better.) But if there are a few that have learned how, I find that a "sparrow spooker" will also deter the grackles and starlings. I make my spookers with stiff wire (rather than string or fish line) hanging vertically around the tube feeders, because the string can tangle, and may even snag a bird. Birds with larger wingspans don't fit between these vertical wires. And house sparrows feel trapped if they can't exit the feeders in any direction; that's how I think they are deterred.

Thanks! It definitely was not the rusty blackbird, that bird has a "cute" head like a chickadee but the one I saw was more "scary" like a crow or like the brewer's blackbird you mentioned. It doesn't 100% look like that either so who knows! I wish I could remember the beak color, if it was black or yellow. It was pretty big too, bigger than a Robin which I have a million of around here. Not as big as a crow though. Hmmm!