Four baby birds are outside on my porch and I believe that the mother has abandoned them

What can I do to take care of them? I feel sorry for them. Is there somebody I can call or is there a way for me to take care of them myself?

If the babies have most of their feathers, they are fledglings. Baby birds fledge (leave the nest) several days before they can fly. They need time to hop around on the ground, climb low branches, and exercise their wings until they have strengthened them enough for flight. The parent birds continue to feed and care for the fledglings until they are self-sufficient.

If they are fledglings, leave them where you found them. The parents are probably just gathering food for them. Leave the area, because the parents think of you as a predator, and will not come back to their babies if you are visible.

If they do not have many feathers yet, and you think they are still nestlings, try to find the nest and place the birds back in the nest. Do not worry that you have touched them. Birds do not have an acute sense of smell. The parent birds will not detect your scent on the babies, and will not reject them. Wildlife biologists and bird banders handle baby birds all the time, with thier bare hands, and the parents never reject the babies.

If you can not find the nest and place the birds back, contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. You can find one here:

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~devo0028/contact.

Please, under no circumstances, attempt to care for the baby birds yourself. There is so much more to rehabilitation than keeping the animal alive until you think it is ready to be released. You have to know not only what to feed the bird, but how (please do NOT attempt to give the bird any liquid by dropper - baby birds can aspirate and die), how much and how often. You also have to know how to assess the birds general health and condition.