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One egg missing from nest?

14 years ago

Hello everyone! I am a new bluebird enthusiast. I have been feeding birds in my yard for over three years (I'm sure my neighbors just love the growing collection of feeders) and have become more serious about the hobby over the past year. This spring I decided to put up a bluebird box, and was blessed with a pair of bluebird just a few days later!

I believe my bluebirds may be first-time nesters (laying fairly late in the season, and taking over 2 weeks to build their nest). I was thrilled when I checked the box on Wednesday and saw three beautiful blue eggs. Given that bluebirds usually lay one egg each day, the first egg would have been laid on Monday.

Today (Friday) I checked the nest again, expecting to see anywhere from 3-5 eggs. I was so disheartened to see only two eggs in the nest!

The box is not accessible to cats, raccoons, or snakes, so the egg was either taken by another bird or ejected by the parents. I do wonder if the egg that is missing might have been the "Monday egg" which I wonder did not survive the freak snowstorm of that day.

I saw Momma poking her head out of the box this morning but when I checked the nest several minutes ago, neither Momma or Papa was around.

I wondered what your thoughts might be about the missing egg?

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Comment (1)

dzyg
14 years ago
First thing that comes to mind is a House wren, they can and will poke holes in other birds eggs and throw them from the nest. However they normally don't leave any left, the will poke them all and or throw them all out. Unless it got interrupted while doing so, if the Blues returned and chased it away. The Bluebird would not normally take an egg out. There are many times one egg doesn't hatch for some reason and they just leave it right there and don't ever take it out. I would keep any eye out, hopefully they don't give up on the two remaining ones but if it was a wren it will probably be back.

Good luck!
Donna
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