How a Rescue Bird Inspired My Brand

When I decided to make the big leap into private practice, I was already set on my business’s name; however, my logo left something to be desired. It felt basic and lacked something that was deeply personal to me.

This past summer, on one random Wednesday morning, my husband and I were startled awake by a bird. This bird sounded like it was outside of our window. I remember even putting in earplugs to drown out the noise, but nothing was drowning out the baby bird’s cry for help! Finally, after hours of trying to figure out where this bird was, my husband found her in the attic of all places.

We were all scrambling to get into the attic and figure out what to catch her with. There was no nest, mama bird, or other baby birds in sight.

In a hurry, I went up there with some paper towels, and that resulted in my husband frantically trying to catch her and the baby bird hopping further and further to the edge of the attic. I got a plastic measuring cup and climbed on my hands and knees to finally reach her.

Thus began our journey of caring for a nestling. I was not set on keeping her just yet. I called a local rescue, and they said they were already closed for the day, so it would have to be the following day if we were going to bring her to the rescue. In the meantime, we learned an emergency diet for baby birds is soaked and crushed-up cat food. Well, all we had was wet cat food. I safely put her in a container in our bedroom with what was left of her nest. She didn’t even have feathers, just the black piping of where feathers would come out. I remember being the first one to hand-feed her with tweezers as she gapped her mouth wide open for nourishment. We also learned that she needed warmth. So we put a heated blanket under the container she was in. My kids were elated that we had a baby bird in our home.

We ended up having to move her to the laundry room, as she was so loud, especially when she was hungry. As soon as the floor creaked from us waking up, there she would go, making her presence known with her hungry chirp.

Just two days into us taking care of her, my daughter held her with some tissue paper. The sheer joy on her face was priceless. This little baby bird was already starting to grow some feathers and pulling on our heartstrings. It was amazing to see her grow and flourish under the right conditions with the right care.

Soon enough, we named her Maribel, and that was that. We were not giving her up at this point. Maribel was the perfect summer project, and it was healing for me. I have this strong desire to birth, nurture, and grow something, even if it is just a little baby sparrow.

Initially, we were feeding her every 30 minutes to 1 hour. Suffice to say, I felt like we had a newborn in the house! Fortunately, birds do not eat overnight, so I could get my much-needed beauty rest.

We joined sparrow rescue groups and connected with a rehabber in our local area. My daughter talked about getting a cat for years, but now we are bird people.

Fun fact: a cat's saliva is toxic to birds, so a kitten was out of the question. We were learning so much as a family and watching videos about birds, and sparrows in particular. There is nothing quite like hands-on experience. 

My family watched this little nestling grow and develop over the course of 3 weeks. From “being as naked as a jaybird,” as my grandmother would say, to her feathers coming in and flying for the first time. She loved to get in my hair, fly on our heads, and just cuddle in general. In our final days with her, she was learning to self-feed. Maribel did not have a shy temperament. She would even try to take food from us. My children made some core memories this past summer with caring for a fragile being, observing her grow and mature, and cultivating patience and gentleness. Maribel unexpectedly passed away just 3 weeks after we found her, but her presence and the joy she brought us will never be forgotten. 

After our experience nurturing a baby bird, we had the opportunity to adopt two other fledglings in which we nostalgically named Indigo and Jasper.

Indigo was the owner’s little girl at the bed and breakfast that we went to on our honeymoon. We were smitten by this sweet little 3-year-old girl. Jasper was one of our favorite restaurants when we traveled to San Francisco well over a decade ago by now. It turns out Indigo is a boy, so he’s affectionately called Indy, and Jasper is a girl, so we call her Jas.

Not long after this, I knew I needed to really start working towards moving the needle on my business, and I was not set on my previous logo. I remember sitting down one Friday afternoon, working in Canva, and it dawned on me that a bird would be the perfect logo for my company.

So there you have it: our summer of birds inspired a new, fresh logo that truly captures the meaning and essence of what I hope Flourish Speech Solutions will be. I want it to be a place where children and parents feel heard, supported, and are able to flourish in whatever that looks like for each family.

If you have read this long, thank you for listening. I hope next time you're outside, you stop, look, and listen to the birds around you. We are all made for communication and connection, and that can be observed in even the smallest of birds. Stay tuned for my next blog post. We started a mealworm farm out of our desire to feed our sparrows, and it’s been such a great learning and language-enriching experience for my kids.