The first brood of sparrow juveniles tend to congegrate in a pack like locust.  I was just in the garden watering and came back maybe 30 min later and saw this.  I did see a bunch of sparrows fly off of the tree.  The branches are thin and probably would have broke without support when the figs got bigger.  Its hopeful thinking on my part, I see that the leaves are wilting.  I will cut it off tomorrow and take the figs off and put it in a box with some moss and see what happens.  I drowned my sorrows in that LSU Gold Fig.

In one of my old neighborhoods I had my garden vandalized. I had 1 potted fig tree, my very first and it was cut nearly all the way through at the base with a pair of clippers I'd left in the yard. When I found it, it too was wilted and looked pretty hopeless. I got a roll of electric tape and taped around the cut, put several stakes in the pot and tied it to them. It survived and went on to produce figs that same year. I think you have a good chance with what you've done.

Hi Tom , gee of all plants an Ischia Black gets damaged.
Sorry to hear that .

Hitchcock was right... birds are evil.

Sorry about your tree.

What a heart breaker.

It actually might be a plus because I now am taking a closer look at the figs to see what attention they need.  I now see that I need some supports on the other branches and they attract birds to perch on them because there are these open branches.  I will put bird netting on them too.

I'm making lemonade when life handed me lemons, except I'm doing it with Ischia Black.  Here is that branch that broke off with roots and I just put it in a cup.  Do you think I should have cut it into two pieces? 

Not sure what kind of birds are using that nesting box in the pictures behind the damaged tree, I would take that down  or at least relocate it, good luck with the cutting, great video.

Not sure what kind of birds are using that nesting box in the pictures behind the damaged tree, I would take that down  or at least relocate it, good luck with the cutting, great video.

Last year there were wrens in it and this spring there was a family of chikadees that I have some videos on.

Look at it this way, your garden looks very healthy and vibrant so that means you are doing thing right by bring in nature.  Just think about all of those pest bugs those sparrows are eating. 

This is a small lesson in plant physiology, which applies to air-layering. You have a bark connection in your broken branch, but little or no woody connection. The woody portion supplies the water, the bark provides the products of photosynthesis. This is why the leaves are wilting, same as if you ave cut the branch off, because you lost the water channel to the leaves. This is also why you can air-layer many plants. By keeping the woody portion of a branch, ,you continue to supply water to the part being air-layered. By stripping a ring of bark, you are interrupting the flow of the products of photosynthesis and diverting them into producing roots for you air-layer, rather than roots for the entire plant.

I had decided to cut the broken branch into two pieces and this portion of the cutting is rooting. 

So with the high humidity outside it didn't make any sense keeping this cutting in an airconditioned room in a container trying to maintain humidiy.  As soon as I put it outside the next day the bud opened up and its really liking the outside with this heat and humidity.

This heat and humidity seems to be very beneficial for rooting green cuttings too. What is wierd is that everytime I take an airlayer off of a tree all the leaves wilt and look like crap for a while. I even took a few leaves off of them to prevent the wilt but that didn't help. I still have to tent them. Maybe not enough roots are forming but I am leaving them on for 6 weeks or more and the sphagnum is loaded with roots so I don't really know what is the cause.

Great job!  From all accounts that variety is tough to root.

More progress on the Ischia Black cutting.

Here is the progress on UCD Ischia Black cutting and airlayers.  The lean-to greenhouse is extending the growing season but considering the cutting was started late June they are very slow growers.  It does get into the 40's in the greenhouse but they still are holding onto some leaves.  They almost look semi dormant with some leaf drop with some dormant buds.