You should begin doing this once it is fully feathered (a fledgling). You can leave seeds, insects (dead mealworms and crickets work well), and fruits (cherries, grapes, plums, etc., which can be cut up into smaller pieces). Eventually the bird will begin pecking at the food out of curiosity.;
, Tap the dish a couple of times and then feed the baby bird from it. You can also hold up the dish to the bird and try to coax it to eat from it.
 This will encourage the bird to eat by itself, and it will begin to prefer not being hand-fed anymore.
 It may still beg for food but will no longer need you to feed it.
 Start by dipping the bird's beak in a shallow dish of water, or put a few drops of water on the bird's beak.
Start leaving small dishes of food and water for the bird.
Feed the bird from the dish.
Once the bird is eating on its own, start decreasing the amount of food you hand feed it.
After a couple of weeks, the baby bird will be eating independently.
Around this time it will also need to learn how to drink water.
{"src": "wikihow-all_validation", "title": "How to Wean a Wild Baby Bird"}