Wild bird experts please help!!?

Question

I have a flycatcher. I know he is a wild bird, but he chose to come live with me. He was on my husband's car last summer when he got out of work and he opened the door, the bird flew in and rode home on his shoulder.
We had to feed him bird formula for the entire winter because he wouldn't take solids until the past month. I'm not sure what to feed him because flycatchers aren't pets and there aren't a lot of resources for me. On a daily basis I've been giving him mealworms, blueberries, some cockatiel bird seed (He eats them in small amounts, though I don't know if he should eat them, which is why I ask), and some millet (also not sure if this is good but he likes it). I have given him strawberries and I also give him all the potato bugs or spiders from my basement.
I've tried to train him to feed himself but he's clueless. He wont eat unless I give it to him on a skewer or I put it in his dish. I can't set him free but I want him to be happy. How can I make him happy??

Answer 1

Sounds like you're doing pretty good feeding the bird. Maybe just a couple of suggestions. Go to a pet store, or look in reptile mags, and find bug feed for reptiles there. Your flycatcher is a high metabolism animal, and will need quite a bit of food. The only other suggestion feed wise is maybe go to your home improvement center and buy one of those flycatcher nonpoisonous traps that are nothing more than a bag with some attractant in them. You fill them up with water to activate the attractant, and the fly's go in but don't come out. This should keep you in food for the bird for a while. Since he seems to have adopted you and your husband, all I'd say to keep him happy is the same thing you'd do for any other bird. A safe clean place to live where he can have a decent quality of life.
Does the bird seem to be young? Perhaps he's just left the nest? If so, as he grows up he may seek the wild again. Hard call at that point.

Answer 2

I would recommend that you find a wild bird rehabber in your area and get their advice. Some species of birds like flycatcher don't learn to feed themselves in captivity because in the wild they would be catching insects on the wing, and without a parent to teach it how to hunt, it's going to remain clueless. If you could find a rehabber with other flycatchers then perhaps if it is housed with them it would learn to hunt, and also realise that it's a bird.