Do Grounded Martin Chicks Ever Take Flight By Themselves?

[Bird Brain]

If I find them, I'll put them back in a gourd and some of them take flight on the second attempt. But what about the ones I don't find or catch? Do they have any chance at all of taking flight by themselves once on the ground? Also, has anyone just tossed them up in the air as high as possible and they take flight? Thanks

[Conrad Baker]

They are "jumpers" for some reason. Mites, thinking they can fly, falling from the house, etc. I try to put them back in the house if possible. If they could fly (by throwing them up in the air), I would think they would be doing so. If it was mite infestation, then probably all in the nest would be jumping. The ones you don't find, well let's just hope they flew away.

[G Saner]

My prior colony was in a suburban location with 6-foot-high wooden fences. If a martin baby fell to the ground, there was no hope for it to gain enough height to clear those fences. The baby needed more space to build altitude.

I did have success throwing a baby into the air so it could clear the fence. You had a pretty good idea if the baby was old enough to fly with some help. If it didn't look far enough along, I would place the baby back into a gourd.

Babies on the ground were sometimes fed by the parents. To my knowledge, none of them ever made it. Usually, cats caught them at night.