Missing Female and 3 eggs

14 years ago

This is for a friend of mine. Her first brood was textbook perfect. 5 eggs, 5 hatched and 5 fledged. No problems at all with other birds or predators. This second brood had 4 eggs and everything was going well. This morning she saw the nesting box had slid down the pole. When she went out there, there was only one egg in the nest and feathers on the ground. Then she saw the male fly to the box, look inside then sat on top, looked on the ground then left. What should she do with the one egg and nest? Wouldn't the male probably try to find another mate? Her box is up a little higher and on a PVC Pole with no baffles and really not near any trees but there are some cypress trees a few feet behind it. Looks like something had gotten on the top of that box to make it go down on the pole.

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Comments (7)

dzyg
14 years ago
How was her box mounted that it slid down the pole? Sounds like a raccoon or a cat got up there and got the momma bird and the other eggs. Nothing she can do with the remaining egg, dispose of it and the nest, she could save the nest if she ever needed to do a nestchange though. Have her either mount the box properly with a baffle (stovepipe) or take the box down if she won't do it right to keep the birds safe. A nestbox shouldn't be able to slide down the pole....Loosing eggs or nestlings is bad enough but to loose an adult bird is much much worse. Because her box was not put up properly she now caused the loss of much more than just that one set of eggs by loosing that adult female.

Donna
sagrinin
Original Author
14 years ago
Donna, I think her box was mounted properly, and it was high enough, it's just that whatever got on top of the nesting box, I guess it climbed up the pole, was so heavy it pushed it down on the pole. I told her about the baffle. She certainly didn't want this to happen and didn't think it would because her other brood was textbook perfect. Never saw any predators or other birds lurking around.
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kendra2003
14 years ago
I think what Donna was trying to say is that if the box was properly attached to the pole (ie: screws) it should not have slid down the pole even with quite a bit of weight on top of it. Because you say she never saw any predators around, it probably was a raccoon. They come out at night, and chances are she would not have seen them. I would suggest to her that she screw the box in place with at least two screws, and put up a baffle to keep the predators from climbing up the pole.
dzyg
14 years ago
If it wasn't baffled and something was able to push it down the pole...it wasn't mounted properly. A raccoon that finds a meal inside a nestbox will always check out nestboxes it finds from then on...they don't forget. If she wants to have another successful nesting ever...she needs to baffle that pole and the baffle would need to be big enough around to wobble sufficiently. Not sure what size pvc she used to mount the box on. All my boxes are mounted on conduit ranging from 1/2" to 2" in thickness. They are all mounted using two one-hole straps made for conduit. I could sit on top of the box and it wouldn't slide down the pole. Hopefully she can get her setup corrected so she can safely offer nestboxes for the blues.

Donna
sagrinin
Original Author
14 years ago
I just talked to my friend. She had three brackets around the pole. The house slid down almost to the ground and was turned around. She is really upset over this. She is going to get a baffle and make sure her box is secure. We both really care about the blues and we are new at this. I have learned so much from this forum, but still have a lot to learn. Thanks for your help!
dzyg
14 years ago
Not sure what type of brackets your friend is using however on conduit I know that one-hole straps hold much tighter than two-hole straps. One hole has a strap that goes over the pole and screws into the back of the nestbox on one side. I use two of these kind on my boxes, one going each way. If you use the two-hole straps they have one screw on each side but they don't hold the box as tight. Not sure what she had on the pvc pipe but if she can get something like a one-hole strap for it and put two of them on it, it should hold much tighter.

Hope she can get things straightened out and get some more blues...it is so very hard when something goes wrong.

Donna
ohsoblue77
14 years ago
Since she already has PVC handy, could she possibly use it for a baffle? What diameter (in inches) is the PVC? How long is it?

I used to just slip 4" PVC over my wooden posts but all are now mounted on 1" conduit with 4" PVC baffles. I sprayed them all a natural green color with Krylon to blend in better.

I've seen evidence of attempts at raids at least one or two boxes, and even found a sparrow spooker turned, but ultimately the nest, nor the parents or eggs, were lost, so it was probably a Raccoon that had bad luck. I would use stovepipe, but I had plenty of PVC already availible, and according to Sialis.org, it also works as a baffle in 4"

Hopefully she gets everything set straight!

~Tim~