One morning Susan Simon, an American woman, went out on her covered porch and noticed something pink on the ground. There were Mexican lenticels, birds of the finches family, nesting near her house, and one family of birds had built a nest right above the woman’s porch. But unfortunately, it was unreliable – the nest was knocked down by the wind.
One of the tiny chicks miraculously survived the fall. At first, the woman did not touch it, but time passed and she realized that the baby needed help. She researched on the Internet how to take care of such a small chick and prepared everything she needed.

She placed the chick in a container with tissues and fed it with a toothpick. Then she began feeding the ward on a schedule – every 15 minutes. Susan was worried that the baby might not survive but fortunately, he was on the mend.
After two weeks, Susan began to feed him less. She noticed that the chick was gaining weight, and was becoming more active. Time passed, and the baby grew, and soon fledged – all the while Susan sensitively cared for him and gave all her love. The chick was named Twerp.

“At first he didn’t want to open his mouth — I think he was weak and cold,” Simon said. “I got him to take some food and then I had to feed him every 15 minutes for the first couple of weeks.” 

Then Susan walked around the garden, holding Twerp on her shoulder. The chick at one point even began to fly up a tree a little bit but would always return to her shoulder. So, over time, Twerp learned to fly and started spending time with his relatives, and then he stopped coming back. Although the family got used to Twerp, Susan was happy that she was able to help him. Now the chick has a new life – and of course, he periodically flies to the feeder that hangs in his rescuer’s garden.

“I was sad when he left,” Simon said, “but kind of happy that he was back where he was supposed to be.”