Sick sparrow?

Question

There is a sparrow in my back yard who is sick. He is puffy or swollen and doesn't fly away when you get close. He sits there or will try to wattle away. Most of the time his eyes are closed.

Is there anything I can do for this little guy? We have 4 feeders in our back yard so there are always birds, but he has been like this for at least a couple of hours.

I put some food and a little bowl of water by him but he just sits there swollen. I could probably pick him up if i needed to but I wouldn't know what to do with him.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Could this be a baby bird..and that is why it looks "puffed up".  Watch it from afar continually to see if you see it's parents coming to feed it.  Baby birds do leave the nest before they can fly and will hop around on the ground or in low scrubs while their parents care for them.

Answer 2

you could bring the bird in the house to keep things from eating it unless you have cats or dogs in the house if it looks like it might be a baby read this page if it is a baby you need to feed it squished worms you can buy from fish bait shop or a gas station some times they sell worms then you could crush the worms to feed the bird

http://www.ellicottwildlife.com/

this may help better than the one below

Answer 3

If this sparrow is not flying away, and appears puffy and swollen, it may be having difficulty breathing.  The breast often swells if small birds are attempting to suck in large amounts of air to keep their Blood O2 content up.

I would wager that this sparrow sadly, may be suffering from Avian Infectious Bronchitis, which is a transmittable condition to humans, manifesting as a cold.  

Sorry to say this, but I suspect this little thing will be deceased fairly soon.  This sounds like the last stages and their is nothing which can be done to slow or stop it.