bird nest question and saving it

[rebocardo]

I was cutting down some brush at my fence line and when I did, a nest on a branch resting on the bush I was cutting drooped to the ground. Once I saw it, I propped it back up with brush so it is about four feet off the ground and I surrounded it by brush. Trying to deter the numerous squirrels, racoons, rats, hawks, and cats we have in the area.

The parents may have been around, as once the chainsaw was off, I heard plenty of birds.

There are four good sized chicks in there and I am worried about their survival. Do you think the parents would come back even though the nest is moved? The chicks are about three-four inches long (eyes still closed I think) with tuffs of feathers on their heads.

Do you think stringing the branch back up so it is higher off the ground would help?

I came to the nest once it got dark and I could not see any adult birds around the area and when the light hit them, the chicks stretched out their little beaks for food with some squeaking.

If they have been abandoned, tomorrow will be day 3 and I would like to save them if possible. Do the parents of birds (I have a lot of robins .. I think) sleep in the nest or around it after the chicks hatch? If I elevated the nest back to 8 feet or so to protect the nest, would the birds come back?

The only other thing I could think of was cutting the branch and bringing it inside. What would I feed them and how do you release them ?  My wife and I were thinking fish food with water. I could find worms, but, can chicks eat worms whole?

I know I have killed my fair share of wildlife and squished more then one nest with eggs, just seems different with a nest of defenseless birds that I do not have to kill. 

I guess I will hold off on cutting my other bushes for a few weeks until I can be sure any other birds have flown the coop/nest  :

[Stump Jumper]

Can you regurgitate the worms some baby birds are fed this way? ;D  The food has to be digested by the parent bird first with some species.  Sometimes pet stores also have food.

Mrs. Stump Jumper

[Furby]

Not all animals can live, fact of life.
The parents may come back even though the nest was moved, then again, they may not.
Have many, many times replaced nests and or chicks back into nests due to cats and other things. Sometimes the parents come back, sometimes not. Have had the parents move the older chicks out of a nest after the chicks were replaced, but these sound like they are too young for that.
One good thing to note, is that even if the chicks are lost, the mother may lay more eggs to replace the chicks she lost.
Yes, a parent bird sleeps on the young when they are smaller, but do also leave them unattended at times.

Yup, the younger birds need some regurgitation, after they get a bit older they are fed insects whole.
Have some awesome video someplace I shot years ago of a pair of robins feeding their young, the camera was hidden in a hollow log a little over a foot or so away. ;D

[DanG]

If ya eat a few of them worms, the regurgitation part will come naturally. ;D :D

Sorry to make light of the situation, Rebo, I just couldn't help myself.  Good on ya for being concerned about the little birdies.  What Furby said is true, however...not all of them survive, by a long shot.  If they did, we'd be overrun with them.  I think you've already done the best thing you could for them.  Anything else would probably make things worse.

[UNCLEBUCK]

Thats how I am in my old age now , I would stop a loaded semi now and get out and help a turtle get across the road and 15 years ago I would have aimed for it . I have often wondered about the birds in the nest and I think what you have done rebo is about the best anyone could ask for .

Might be able to feed the babies , anything is possible . 

[Patty]

What Buck said struck a cord with me. Age is funny in how it teaches us to respect life. I think you have done all you can now do for those chicks. Staying away from the nest so the parents will come back is important. If they don't live, well then maybe they will be the food for another hungry baby somewhere. (just like those worms you want to gind up for food)   Life is a cycle, and death is a part of it.

On the other hand...

I commend your compassion. Have your children gotten a chance to see them? Maybe you could teach them a little lesson about nature with this nest of chicks. Kids like to nurture, maybe you and them could try to hand feed the chicks. When I was a kid I was always trying to save some poor animal, and then when it would die (as most of them did) I felt ok about it because I knew I had tried my best to save them. I would have a little burial ceremony and then go on to try to save another. I think it is important for kids to experience these things.

[Tom]

Wild animals are sometimes difficult to figure.  I like bees.   I've been a been bee keeper and would sit for hours watching them come and go.  Did you know that you can stand in front of a hive of European Honey Bees, about 6 or 8 feet away, and the foraging bees will stack up behind you because you are in the way of their getting to their hive?   You can turn a bee hive around without moving its location and the bees returning from the field will not be able to find it.

In the middle of the night, you can seal a hive and move it five miles away and the bees will still be able to forage and find there way to the new home.  That is, all but the ones that over-nighted in the field when the hive was moved.  They will never find it and may not be accepted by another hive either.  Most will just mill around the old hive site until they die of starvation.

I moved a nest of eggs that had been on my sawmill to a rose bush not far away.  The birds never came back.  I imagine that once I moved the mill, they were lost.

[SwampDonkey]

I think also that once the nest site is moved or disturbed, most birds will start a new family. Robins will have 2 or 3 families in a summer. I've fed older cedar waxwings that just left their nest, I fed them some wild pin cherries from neighboring trees. As the cherries entered the pits exited. :D :D :D

[rebocardo]

>  I think you have done all you can now do for those chicks.

Yes, probably so.

My wife was watching them today and we saw orange birds going about the brush where the nest was, they move so fast it is hard to tell exactly where they are going to and from. It looked like they were flying away. I will just sneak a peak over there tomorrow to make sure the nest has not fallen and then leave it alone and not make it worse as long as the chicks do not look dead.

My wife warned me about cutting the holly bushes down in front of the house because there might be bird nests in there because of the time of year and because they chow down on the berries  ;) 

So, me being me, I went and cleaned my fence line instead on the side of the house (there can't be any nests here) to get ready to drop a tree and clear around a tree I was going to use as a base for my pulley. So ... clearing the brush around the tree I disturbed a nest anyways  :  Which now means I can't drop the tree anyway because the nest is in the way  :D

My kids really wanted to take the birds in, but, I figured at some point you have to let nature take its course because ... there is not way I am chewing up worms  :D

[metalspinner]

We recently added on a new kitchen to our home.  In a holly tree growing seven inches from the old concrete porch and new masonry wall of the kitchen, a mother cardinal built a nest and laid her eggs.  The masons had to cut back the edge of the old porch slab to lay the first course of brick.  For three hours they had a concrete saw cutting that slab with a blower clearing the cut line.  The blower was pelting that little holly tree and the momma bird, but she hunkered down and never left that nest.

Later, the brick layers showed up to brick the wall and they wanted to cut that little tree down to put up their scaffolding.  I said, "No way!"  We draped a tarp over it, they built their staging around the little tree and did their work.  When they finished and removed thier stuff, I pressure washed the brick and removed the tarp and their she was still clinging to her nest.

We had a window placed within two feet of that little tree and could watch her feed and care for her babies.  That had to be the best momma bird ever!

[ellmoe]

    For three or four years we had a wren nest in our "spare" loader. Above the windshield was a piece af sheet metal about 6" wide that ran the length of the windshield, set at a 45% degree angle making a small cave about 8" square and three feet long. The birds would always nest on the left corner. The loader would be used up to thirty minutes at a time 4 or 5 times a day. We made sure that we always parked in the same place and the parents always came back. Whenever we  used the loader for an extended period of time they would rush back in to the nest after we parked. There were several times that I am sure I was scolded in "wren-speak". ;D Every year they successfully raised their young. I don't know if it was the same birds, I suspect their lifespan is not that long. Either way , no nests for the last three years.
Mark
Mark

[tomboysawyer]

Our dozer, Gracie, was parked for a while this spring waiting for the injection pump and head to be rebuilt. When all the parts were finally in and we scheduled a weekend to reassemble her, a bird flew out of the ROPS as I approached it and, sure enough, it had started building a nest up in the ROPS. So I gently took the rather flimsy nest out of the dozer and put it up on top of the "wall" of our sawmill shed. The dozer was parked in the adjoining tent - so it only moved about 20'. We now have a very complete nest full of baby barn swallows a little over a month later. I wasn't sure if the adult bird would have abandoned the half-nest after having it moved, but I wasn't keen on a lot of bird doo in my dozer and I figured it wasn't going to like that the dozer was going to start moving (and shaking) soon.

Not sure how the eggs survived ellmoe's use of his loader - but no way eggs would have survived stumping and going up and down my partial driveway.

I've tried to nurse my share of birds and small animals (barn swallows that had fallen out of the nest and a baby groundhog I almost ran over). They never make it very long. The swallows I tried to rescue had probably been rejected by their parents in the first place (on the floor of the barn unable to fly). I'm no mamma bird or mamma groundhog. I can't do the things their parents would do. Some times that's just life, but we feel better for tryin'.

[asy]

I've tried to nurse my share of birds and small animals (barn swallows that had fallen out of the nest and a baby groundhog I almost ran over). They never make it very long. The swallows I tried to rescue had probably been rejected by their parents in the first place (on the floor of the barn unable to fly). I'm no mamma bird or mamma groundhog. I can't do the things their parents would do. Some times that's just life, but we feel better for tryin'.

This is pretty much right, I used to breed Cockatoos, and have hand raised a few, it's not easy, and even so sometimes they just don't make it.

Thats how I am in my old age now , I would stop a loaded semi now and get out and help a turtle get across the road and 15 years ago I would have aimed for it . I have often wondered about the birds in the nest and I think what you have done rebo is about the best anyone could ask for .

Might be able to feed the babies , anything is possible . 

Must admit, I agree with Patty, this really struck a chord. I know I slowed down in my car as soon as I put a baby in the back seat. 
Same in all facets of life, as we get older, we mellow.

I often used to watch 'old' people smiling at silly things kids do, and thought 'now that just wasn't funny', and now I find myself smiling at the same things.

I wonder what that says.

asy :D

[rebocardo]

Great stories! 

[metalspinner]

My wife came home the other day telling of her heroing experience of saving some worms on a sidewalk after it had rained.  Our little boys have changed her more than she would have ever thought. :D