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Bluebird sadness

15 years ago

About 2 or so weeks ago I was thrilled to find a bluebird nest in one of my boxes. I have 2 boxes- the other one had Tufted Titmice in it that successfully fledged.

However, I had problems with this nest of Bluebirds. I counted about 5 babies when the eggs hatched.

We left to go away last weekend, and I thought that the babies were almost ready to fledge. When we came back and I checked the box on Monday- sure enough the babies had gone. All but 1. Dad was still hanging around feeding the baby (and dive-bombing me) so I didn't think much about it- the first day.

Yesterday the baby was still there. I started getting concerned. Dad was still feeding the baby- and it looked healthy enough. I considered taking the baby out of the nestbox and placing it in one of the bushes in the woods- but then was concerned that maybe the baby wasn't strong enough to fly and then I'd put dad in danger of being found by a predator- so I left baby alone.

This morning I went to check the box. Baby was still there. Baby wasn't moving. Got a bad feeling. Went for a 30 minute walk and came back. Sure enough- baby had died last night. As I was taking the nest out of the box- I found another dead nestling. This baby was younger than the fledgling- it didn't have the same feathers as the older one (I knew the older one was ready to go b/c it looked like babies I'd seen before who had fledged)

I did a little internet research to see why the babies had died. There were some funny-looking bugs in the bottom of the box, and from what I looked up on the internet they looked like blowfly larvae. There was this red spot on the baby- it kind of looked like a blowfly that was attached to it. But from what I read also it said that you needed a lot of blowflies to harm a nest, and I saw maybe 4 total in the bottom of the box. I didn't check the nest and now I can't find it- I threw it away in the woods.

Can blowflies do that kind of damage to a nest? And if so, why did I have a couple of successful fledglings? Maybe this one was the runt and was harmed by them the most.

It wasn't a predator that got the babies. I've got a metal baffle attached to the pole the nestbox is on. I know there are HOSP's around- but I've never seen any in my backyard.

If you got this far in my post- thank you. Any kind of advice would be helpful. I did clean out the box with a bleach solution and it's drying out now, I'll make sure it's up again to see if maybe I get another pair that nest there.

cheryl

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Comments (2)

lisa11310
15 years ago
If any babies fledged it will be considered a successful nesting! If I were you I would monitor more closely. Good notes can help you determine what may have happened. Blowfly feed at night and as the other babies left they would have had only the one chick left to feed on. I'm not saying that's what happened but it is a possibility. I know we are not supposed to interfere so much but I would have tried to at least pick the baby up to be sure it was not stuck on something and examine to see if there was something obvious that was keeping it from leaving. I did have 3 TRES babies that just were not strong enough to fledge (due to loss of a parent and bad weather). It is sad but sometimes there is not anything we could have done and it's just Natures way. Good luck on the next nesting!
bandjzmom
15 years ago
Awwww.. I am sorry that this happened to your Blue babies mom. We hate it when we lose them. I am betting that it was just anemia from the Blowflies since you know that you had them in the box. Here is what the sialis site has to say about the issue.~~Angie

Here is a link that might be useful: Sialis/Blowflies
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