Help! Pre Fledgling in the garden!

[Binglebong]

Just found a magpie prefledgling in the garden. Clearly can't fly yet (and has bare knees!)- what do I do?! So far I've put down a large saucer of water near it (we always have some in the garden but this is closer) which it seems to be taking advantage of, although very nervously. It's already close to the bird food and I've put down some mealworms in water and a suet ball on the floor close to it.

It has found some shelter, although not cat proof, and the nest (I assume, can't see it) is in a tree far higher than I can get.

What can I do to help increase its chances of survival?

Leave it. The parents will hopefully care god it.

Don't worry, I'm not planning on touching it unless I really need to. Just don't know what I can do to make it easier for parents as they won't be able to get it back to the nest.

Is it still there?

It ie. Completely out in the open and a target for any cats. I'll let BingleWoof out as much as I can tomorrow to keep them away - he sniffed it then left it alone.

Doubt it will be there in the morning. And horrible as it sounds I don't have much time for magpies. Not when you see all the songbird chicks they eat.

Still there. No sign of parents.

My feeling is they do what they must to survive. I may not like it but I wont blame something for trying to live

The parents must be around somewhere and probably feeding it. We had this happen to a crow and after a few weeks it flew off.
If you don't see the parents though could you take it to a wildlife hosp/rescue?

Magpie fledglings are fed by parents for about a month after they fledge to they will be around somewhere.

It's strange, I usually see adult magpies a lot. But not since I found the fledgling.

We had a tiny, just hatched chick that had fallen off our room the other week. Poor little thing was lying splayed out on the ground trying to lift its little head. DP had to kill it. It was horrible. If its left there over night I doubt it will be there in the morning.

It's still there today. It's huge - apart from its wings! It's definatly feeding itsself although very nervously. I'm going to put more food out soon.

If you run out of mealworms they can eat dog food.

It's strange, I usually see adult magpies a lot. But not since I found the fledgling.

Maybe it's something with corvids? We have a lot of crows and tend not to see the adults when the fledglings are around, maybe they make themselves scarce to force the fledglings to look after themselves as they lay eggs in stages so they will still have younger ones in the nest sometimes.

Oh it's good that it's eating 👍

No danger of running out of meal worms - just brought 2k. That's a LOT of mealworms!

We do get crows etc so that would make sense for not seeing the adults.

It's gone. Which has really confused me to be honest. Dead, yes, it was defenceless. But no idea how it was taken out of the garden - it was huge! We are fenced in and don't have any birds round here that I would have thought could carry it - too big for a cat to as well.

Was likely a cat. Our small cat brought a full sized pigeon through over the fence, up onto the window height cat flap and down again.

Impressive. I think.

It was very impressive, the thing didnt have a scratch on it despite being thoroughly dead.

I'm sorry that your prefledgeling didn't make it though, it was very kind of you to help it be comfortable.

Well it at least wasn't hungry when it went. That's something.