A Mother Bird Will Shun Its Baby If It Has Been Touched By Human Hands
A common myth suggests that if a baby bird is touched by a human, its mother will no longer recognize her own scent on the bird and she will assume that it is not hers. This myth isn’t true because birds don’t have very strong senses of smell and they are very protective of their young even if they have been handled by humans! This myth may have been started to deter well meaning humans from taking baby birds away from their mothers.