First, What is a succsseful release?
There actually is no such thing, this is the humans (self reward) observations after releaseing a wild animal, rehabbed by them.
Once a animal is released it is completely up to Mother from that point on, we as Rehabbers see a Soft release as "finding conditions that improve the chances of survival" such as where there are others to help "show the way" to survival, "matters not how old the animal is as long as the animal is healthy enough to care for themself" it does matter how young the animal is, (wien) no parent will wish to place there young into a world without the proper training, but once the training has been completed by the parent the young are (forced) into caring for themselfs hence the "world of WIEN" and (soft release objective by humans).
A common (false belief) is a bird raised by man can never survive in the wild, well lets look at the (parrots) that flurish in the USA, lets look at the (racing Pigeons) that flurish within the USA, all mothers creations when placed back into the wild have options, survive or not to survive, and we all see the Parrots that haved survived, we all see the Racing Pigeons that have survived without the help from Mankind, the real world is (survival without mankinds help after having mankinds help is "the real world").
When I release a Pigeon, weather the bird is a former Racing Pigeon or a young bird that has been wiened, I search for other Pigeons and a sorce of nurishment, I look for Grain silos, weather farm and or Grain mills, location of Rivers and or streams for water supply, Feral flocks of Pigeons, this will be where I release the bird and or birds, as (justification of a soft release) I follow up and see if I can see those released amung the flock a week later, maybe 2 weeks later, to see how they are doing.
No Parrots are re-leased back into the wild there world is a (re-home world).
Squirrels and small animals are released the same way.
(Soft Release), locating conditions that increase the chances of survival.
BrokenWing