Man Teaches Rescued Baby Hummingbird How to Fly

A compassionate man named Sam Malloy saw a helpless and flightless baby hummingbird on a sidewalk, took her home, and nursed her to full health before releasing her back into the wild when she was strong enough to fly.

I’d just seen this little lump on the sidewalk. I realized that she was a baby she didn’t know how to fly. …she was definitely malnourished…I kept trying to get her to fly there’s a couple times where she’d start flapping her wings really fast. It was like watching a baby take their first steps something almost magical about that

The bird, whom he named Flit, was malnourished and completely void of strength, so Malloy fed her through a syringe and taught her how to fly using perches made out of household items. Once she started to fly, Malloy wrapped the syringe in bright red tissue paper to make it look like a flower so that Flit would know where to look for food.

I took red paper maché and I wrapped it around that syringe so that she knew to start looking for bright colorful objects that have food. I got that branch and duct taped it up there. Once i put the branch up, that’s the only place she would land from then on out.

Malloy felt great pride when the time came to release Flit.

I was able to take  a small little delicate creature and nurse them back to health and get them strong enough so that they can go out into the world on their own. …Flit went straight to her food source that gave me a lot of relief and secured the fact that she was gonna be okay.

Thanks Char Rohrer!

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.