The other evening I saw something black moving on the street in front of my house. When I approached it to see better, I realized it was a baby crow. It wasn't a little baby, but more like a child.
It was afraid of me and trying to fly away, but it couldn't fly. My first instinct was to help it, but I saw an adult crow flying nearby. I thought it must be the mother. I felt relieved that an adult crow was monitoring the little crow, and I went inside to message my daughter about it.
She researched a bit on the internet, and she told me that I should leave it alone (ほっておく）. According to her research, the mother bird is often nearby watching. If I tried to help, I would be interfering (邪魔する).
I started researching myself. I read that mother crows can hurt humans if they think the human will hurt their baby. I also read that sometimes mother crows allow their child to challenge a difficult time as part of their education. It said that, if the crow doesn't look injured, leave it alone. So, even though I really, really wanted to go outside and rescue the little crow, I restrained myself. (restrain = 控える？）
In my mind, I had imagined a story: I rescue the baby crow. I feed it and become friends with it. I return it to its mother. Later, the crows bring me presents, like marbles (ビー玉), stones, pieces of metal or glass. I have seen such stories on the internet. And I love crows. Becoming friends with a crow family would be like a dream for me!
Later that night, before I went to sleep, I went outside one more time with a flashlight. The little crow was huddled up against (寄り添う) the curb (縁石?）on the side of our street. (It's a private street, so almost no cars drive on this street.) I wanted to help him SO BAD! But I knew I might make things worse for him (her?) if I interfered. So I went back inside and went to bed.
I woke up early the next morning and checked outside for the baby bird. It was gone. And there was no blood or feathers, so I don't think a cat got it during the night. I HOPE that it was able to finally fly to its family! Have a happy life, crow!