Downy Woodpecker.... part 2

After my post from yesterday, Downy Woodpecker, I just had to create a part 2!!

There was a lot of activity going on outside that immediately caught my attention.... I heard the sounds of distress from a little bird, but could not locate it immediately.  Then, I found him....

Baby male Downy Woodpecker

He managed to get himself lodged between two branches and could not get himself out....

I was able to gently lift him up with my fingers and he was able to re-position himself on the branch....I took a few photos and then he flew to a nearby tree.

This story doesn't end here!!  It wasn't until I put my photos on the computer that I noticed in one of the pictures that his left eye was closed.  It was like that in all of the photos.  (very visible in the first photo posted above and slightly in the one below) I then realized that something was wrong with his little eye.  Was it poked by a tree branch or a siblings beak in the nest?  Or could it be a birth defect?  I felt so bad because he was now gone from the tree where I initially helped him get ''unstuck''.  Then a few hours later.....

....There he was hanging onto the post above while his mother was feeding below!! I snapped this photo, then set my camera down and proceeded to walk closer to the baby to see if I could get a closer look at his eye!!  The mother flew to a nearby tree, and the baby didn't move.... I slowly raised my hand closer towards him and he still didn't move.  He made it very easy by allowing me to put him in my hand. (Maybe he remembered me helping him from earlier in the day.... )

Once he was comfortable in my hand, I took him into the house and began to take an even closer look.  Our two house cats, Philly and Misty and our Border Collie, Skye are getting used to our feathered friends coming into the house these days.  This was the second bird that needed help in less than a month!! Here is our Hummingbird Rescue !!  To make a long story short, I got out my homeopathy kit and wet a soft cloth with some colloidal silver and gently held it over his eye.  I massaged the area and in a few minutes, his eye began to open up!!!! I was excited and I am certain he was too!!  I put a drop or two of colloidal silver in some water and let him drink it.  Colloidal silver helped in this situation as I was able to clean the area and prevent possible infection in the eye.

His eye is open now and all cleaned up!!

Once confident that his eye was looking better, I gave him a little snack of peanut butter and another drink of water before releasing him outside with his family.  I put him back on the bird feeder and he looked around for a moment and then flew to this stump....

Baby (left) and Father re-united!!

 

How precious is this!!  The father feeding the baby moments after he was in my hand!!

I came to notice that there are at least 3 babies being taken care of by mom and dad... Two boys and a girl!! Here (see photo below) is the female baby now about a week older from this photo !!

Glad to see another happy ending and hopefully they all live long productive lives!! :-)