I've just been outside to see two blackbirds squaking really louding whilst flying in circles round my front garden. Then I heard some squaking from behind a bush and found a young blackbird there.

Its very alert and in good condition, but can't fly.

I know they can often stay on the ground for a couple of days after leaving the nest before they learn to fly .... but the trouble is, I have a couple of cats. One has discovered it already, but is a useless hunter, so he's now inside. My other cat is a total predator and will have this bird in a second.

So, just wondering if anyone knows the best thing to do?

I hate seeing anything suffer, so I'd go for putting it in a box and keeping it safe, but I'm worried that the parents won't be around in a couple of days when its hopefully able to fly. Or it could die of shock in the meantime.

The RSPB don't deal with birds like this, my local RSPCA are useless so I can't take it there.

Anyone got any ideas?

I'd suggest using Google to search for your nearest wildlife rehabilitation/rescue centre using the name of your town/county in the search, give them a ring and see what they recommend. They probably get a number of cases like this each year.

don't touch it, its parents are probably around waiting for you to go, try getting the cats in and leaving it quiet for a bit.

If he's still there in a few hours then you could try using gloves (you don't want ot get your smell on him) to move him somewhere a bit higher - maybe in a box), or need to decide whether to take him in and find a rehab (which will be difficult to do for a blackbird I'm afraid) or try to rehab him yourself (but i'm afriad the chances of survival are poor).

I was always under the impression the parents would continue to feed the fledgeling on the ground. Whats happened is the fledgeling has tried to fly a little bit too soon.
Best confine the cats for a couple of days and leave the bird where it is so the parents can look after it until it masters flight.

This, just keep the cats away and keep your eye on it, the parents know it's there and they won't abandon it

Best thing you can do. The cats will grumble but it'll only be a few days at most.

I read somewhere that it's not true that getting your scent on them will cause them to be abandoned?
My neighbour put a young bird back in the nest it had fallen out of - but there again he knew the nest.
I think the general advice is to try to put them out of harms way then wait.
Just recently I found an injured blue tit in one of my potato bags on the patio. Wasn't sure if it was a young un or not. I put it on the wall to be safer from cats. It nibbled at a bird feeder and while I was asking people what to do about it, it fell over stone dead!