Do I need to pick him up? I don't know if he is going to pull thru. Of course, wild rehab tomorrow... but in a meantime... should I or shouldn't interfere? I read I need to put him in the cardboard box with holes and tape the box. Do I need to provide any food or water?

the first time I thought he looked strange, he was jumping on the ground in a strange manner. This is when I searched in the net what to do with injured bird. The next time I looked in that area, I didn't see him, but a sparrow (him or another one) was acting pretty much normal. I thought maybe it just seemed to me that he was injured.
The next time I saw him, he lay on the ground, not moving much (I got pretty close -- he remained there), I could see him breathing like he was in trouble. This is when I realized there was no mistake about injury and I needed to take action. While I was preparing the box (it was getting dark) I lost a sight of him again. He wasn't on the ground around that area. Must of pulled himself up onto the tree for a night, poor little guy.
From one hand, I was glad he was able to move towards safety of the tree. From another, he is probably losing forces trying to stay safe. Would it be better to have him contained in the box or is it better that he is moving by himself?
Any advice for tomorrow?

If he's injured and you leave him where he is, he's not gonna make it with predators etc. he's probably dehydrated and starving.
I say box ASAP! Do you have a place near you where they cure injured wildlife?
When I found one a while ago when I was in Rome I rolled him in my jumper and drove him to the wild bird centre. I was lucky because the place was not too far.

Best of luck with the little one, keep us posted please!

He'll be safer in a box. You can offer him food and water but he might not take it.

If this is a non-native sparrow (house sparrow aka English sparrow), the rehabber might not take him. Their mission is to save native species not invasive species. It's illegal for the general public to possess native birds but OK to keep non-natives like house sparrows and starlings. So if he survives and the rehabber won't take him, it's OK for you to try and save him if you want to. It sounds like he's in bad shape though so his chances might not be very good.

Be very careful about washing your hands and general sanitation after handling this bird. It's possible that he has a disease that could be transmitted to your pet birds.

Good luck with the little Sparrow. I agree about at least trying to help him. Put him in a box maybe with some grass or straw on the bottom. He probably won't eat but he may drink water from a shallow dish.

thank you.
Like I said, I lost a track of him yesterday and never seen him again. He was gone from my lawn in a period while I was preparing the box, about 15 minutes. Honestly, I don't see any predators around my house and I have been monitoring closely because of my rabbits. (the more I think about recent death of Snowball, the more I am convinced it was not a cat or anybody else). So.... I don't know what could happen to him or his body... but it's gone.

tielfan, that's not nice of rahabber to treat some birds but reject the others. They all live here, and I bet for the time they have been here, they must be considered native... and they are alive creatures! so inhumane.
Yesterday my husband was mowing. I'll ask if he accidentally ran over the poor sparrow.

It's always possible that the sparrow started feeling better and flew away, so let's hope for the best.

It's complicated being a wildlife rehabilitator. They have to operate under a lot of constraints so I don't blame them for not handling non-native species. A federal license is required to take care of native birds and there are a lot of restrictions. I don't know whether they're even allowed to take care of invasive species. House sparrows and starlings are major invaders who put a huge amount of pressure on native bird populations by competing for food and nest spots. "City pigeons" are non-native too but they usually stay out of natural areas so they're less problematic.

There can be a high price to pay for being more sympathetic than the rules allow. There's a "fly or die" rule for the native birds, where the rehabber is supposed to euthanize birds that can't be rehabilitated enough to be released. They're allowed to keep a few unreleasable birds for public education purposes, which usually means big impressive birds like hawks and owls, but no more than that. A rehabber here in Tucson recently lost her permit because she didn't euthanize some birds. So now she can't do wildlife rehabilitation any more and is thinking about opening a rescue for pet birds.

Wildlife rehabilitators often don't have a lot of money and have to rely on donations to do their work. Their facilities are limited too, so they have to set priorities. I think it's appropriate for them to focus on saving the native wildlife because that's their real mission. The invasive species are thriving without any help, and they're cute and fun to watch but they're really bad for our native bird populations.

that's a very patriotic speech, Carolyn
thanks for explaining. Maybe they need to become naturalized citizens LOL