A severely damaged nest can often be tucked into a strawberry basket and then returned to the tree and secured. Songbird parents, with their poor sense of smell, will be none the wiser that you've handled their babies. Those best qualified to raise baby birds are parent birds. Song bird babies are naked and helpless at hatching time. They must be kept warm and fed often by their parents.
Young birds have very special diets.
Whatever the baby bird eats has been predigested to some extent by the parent birds. Song bird babies are ready to leave the nest at only 3 weeks of age. At this stage, they are called fledglings. Their bodies are covered with feathers although their tail feathers are very short. Some still have down on their heads.