It may be a cowbird egg, not a robin egg. Cowbirds lay eggs in other birds' nests and count on the other birds to raise them. Some birds recognize the strange egg and cover it and either abandon the nest or build another nest over it.

Claire

This is quite an old thread but I have to say - "creeper" is an appropriate name for creeper. The condescending, insulting manner with which you speak is the exact opposite way to speak about something if you really want someone to listen. you come across as a big jerk.

Every year I end up with a nest in my wreath on my front door. Usually house finches. Sometimes they live long enough to fly, sometimes I end up with a cowbird egg in there and then the finches end up dying and the cowbird usually lives. As per usual, I have a nest again. 5 eggs, 5 freshly hatched little birdies. I took a photo of the new babies this morning, and this afternoon the nest is empty. I just can't figure out what happened to them on my door...it just makes me sad. Would another bird take them?

I'm heartbroken my babie Red finch also disappeared over night. 6 of them all gone

This happened to me today! We live in an apartment and the nest is in our balcony box. There are no predators (we live in Italy) that I know of, maybe other birds? They disappeared in an afternoon with no signs of struggle. This is the second brood of blackbirds we've had this season. The first family grew up and flew away the second only lasted a day. So sad, I'm sorry for your loss! The first pic is of the ones we lost, the second is of the happy ones that survived

We have phoebes nesting over our front door (very protected site in terms of predators like snakes or raccoons -- would be impossible) and four eggs hatched over the last several days. The first two newborn chicks disappeared mid-morning and she sat on the remaining two eggs another day. They hatched yesterday and today, and this afternoon, they, too, are gone. Just vanished into thin air. No blood or sign of damage to the nest, no one on the ground beneath it. I can hear the phoebes out there now, calling to each other. I'm heartbroken -- what bird or animal could get to a nest tucked under the porch overhang, sitting on top of the door frame, to neatly and without mess or trace, remove these newborn chicks?? I'm stumped. These chick thefts have happened in broad daylight.

We set up a motion detector camera in our porch roof when we saw our robins had returned this spring., We got great photos and didn't disturb the nest at all!.. There was no light or noise to the birds, so it was totally unintrusive!..

Now the birds have fledged their first 3 and are starting the new nest for the next batch.. Suddenly last night a motion detected at 3am.. and the camera was too dark to see what it was.. something raided the nest last night.. I've tried lightening the video to check the creature.. it might be a bat? it looks wet, with a long claw.. It was there for over 30 seconds since our video is a 10 second timing and there were 3 videos..

It looks like a creature out of jurassic park with the bad lighting!.. Wish I could see what the nocturnal creature was that raided !.. Fortunately there were no eggs or babies yet :))

We have several bird houses perched on the Pergola and hanging in our trees. The past two springs, we have been finding dead House Finch baby birds in the yard. There is no trauma signs and they don't even have any feathers yet. Any ideas why this is happening?

I had a nest of wrens in one of the plants on my porch. My little dog just found and ate them and destroyed the nest - they were just about to fledge, and this is the 2nd year at least the wren has nested in that plant spot. I feel horrible, but I want to do the best I can for the mother - she wasn't in the nest. Should I try to put the nest back together and leave it on the plant, or should I remove all the nest material so she finds nothing?

Today, when my fledglings had not seemingly flown (thought I'd missed the big event since at noon the were still in the nest) I opened the birdhouse to find 2 dead babies. The same thing happened to the last nesting. They were active and bobbing their heads out, then suddenly dead. I must assume a disease or something because there didn't seem to be a sign of predators. We have two baffles on the pole. But it is heartbreaking, and I am not sure I want to keep the birdhouse ready if the pair of parents decide to try again. They have lost two nestings. Not sure about the first one, since it was very rainy and cleaning it out were two 'lumps' of unformed babies, but since there had been at least one they were feeding, it apparently was a successful flight. I did ask one neighbor about pesticides, but not herbicides. If we spray weeds in the spring, would it still be able to kill babies in June July and Aug? I don't want to put the parents through another brood only to have them die. We had successful ones last year. It is a birdhouse made for bluebirds, but some form of plastic construction. Not wood. And the nests have been very 'muddy' like. I'm a total novice, and just wanted to help increase the bluebird population with a birdhouse. But to watch the parents work so hard and to see the babies pop their little heads out, only to have tragedy strike, might be to. much for me to be able to go on with this. The birdhouse is cleaned out and open to dry. I almost fear closing it since within an hour last time, the parents were back to building a nest. I don't know what to do.

it is quite confusing when there is no sign of a predator. We had three eggs in a nest, didn't get a good glimpse at the parents, but based on internet searching of the nest design and egg color/size matches it was the same as or similar to a red-eye vireo. The nest was on a low-hanging branch less than a foot above my head over a narrow driveway where four employees' cars drive every day. Not sure why they chose that branch. Really a beautiful nest! All three eggs were gone, no sign of being broken or anything. No egg shells, no yolk mess, no nothing. Not sure what happened. Very sad!

I have a beautiful mourning dove nest next to my dining room window. The mama bird has been sitting on this nest except will fly away ( and immediately return) when the gardener mows the lawn. The nest had 2 newborns. Yesterday afternoon, a cooper hawk came by and chased the mama bird away in an attempt to eat the newborns. I banged on the window and scared it away and the mama came back to sit atop her babies. I left for 5 minutes and noticed the mama bird was gone. I took a look into the nest and the babies were gone. The hawk had returned. The mama bird came back looking for her babies and crying. Heartache!

Oh, I'm so sorry for you and her! Nature is truly tough. So very hard to see if play out. She truly is a mourning dove now.

So sad. We had a nest with 4 baby cardinals. I was so excited to watch them grow I saw them 2 days ago. Eyes were still closed and now they are gone it is so sad. I had no idea that the squirrels would eat them. I bet that is what happened. We have a robins nest with eggs about 6 feet away in a rhododendron tree. The mom built the nest way out on the end of the branches in plain view, we have had many robin nests in that tree over the years and most of the time the babies make it to the fledgling stage and leave the nest. I am worried about the location that this one chose though. I think it is probably the same family that comes back each year. I love it because we can see them through the window without disturbing them :) Nature's precious gift to us <3 Praying the baby Robins will be safe and sound.

For people saying not to approach the nest, what are you supposed to do when the birds make nests in hanging plants? I mean, if the plant isn't watered, it will die, and then any protection provided by the plant is gone.... I had a pair of house finches successfully raise two sets of babies in one plant. Then a pair made a nest in a different plant. Five eggs hatched. One day there were just four babies. A couple days later there were only two, and one had an injury on the back of its head. :( The next day that one was deceased but the one remaining one was alive (with its eyes open). The next day, that one was gone and just the body of the other one was there. :( The nest never looked disturbed at all. I don't know why I had two sets of babies survive and fly away from the nest in one plant, but the I had no survivors from the other plant. The only thing I can think of is that the unsuccessful nest was in a plant hanging on the front corner of my house which has a crepe myrtle over it. The successful nest is at the front of the house next to the steps to the front door. Maybe something was the using the crepe myrtle to get to the unsuccessful nest....? (I pulled the "nest of death" as I called it out of the plant and buried it with the body of the dead baby in it. I hope the parents don't try to build a new nest there.)

Remember, those people who said not to approach the nest didn't have evidence on their side. Creeper's unhelpful and...so many adjectives I could use here but I won't...comments should be disregarded. All she could state were "ethics" statements from organizations, while the experience of others on the forum as well as scientific studies in peer-reviewed journals showed no correlation between human involvement and chick survival. If her posts had not been full of scorn and judgement it is possible she could have taught us something, but it is clear her goal was not to be helpful, but antagonistic. If a bird builds a nest in a hanging plant, your options are limited. One person did say in a different post that it is Mother Nature's way of weeding out the gene pool of birds who don't understand enough to make a nest in a safer spot. That explanation makes sense, even though it does make things hard.

Thanks, deannatoby. I just wish I knew why the first two nests in one hanging plant were fine (4 out of 4 eggs hatched and babies flew away from the first brood, and second brood, 4 out of 5 eggs hatched, and they all lived and flew away). But this nest a mere 15-20 feet away didn't have any survivors. :(

Who knows. I'm absolutely NO expert, and not even a novice, but I imagine there are so many factors. I would imagine even a neighbor getting a new dog would affect bird behavior at a house. More predators? Die off of other food sources? I know in 2004 there was big die off in New England of skunks due to distemper, so all predators that ate skunks had to find other food. Nature is hard to predict. I hope you get blessed by another nest and babies that fledge!

Nearly 4 weeks ago I got a couple feral cats to be barn cats, and I released them from confinement last Tuesday. I would be heartbroken if they did it, but if they did, I would think the plant or nest would have been disturbed. (The one that had the head injury looked like it had been pecked, so I am thinking blue jays or crows. Or (hopefully not) their own parents. :( Well that nest and the one who died in the nest are buried under some flowers, and I hope if there are any more, they all survive. Sweet little baby birds.

This forum is old, but since there are some recent comments I thought I would contribute. Our bird situation is a unique one! My husband and I bought an abandoned house on 36 acres, and found a bird nest in the microwave (the door of the microwave is gone) anyways, I figured mama bird would notice all of the action inside the house and abandon the nest. I still didn’t want to disturb the nest though and then one day we found 5 baby birds in the nest! We did not touch the nest but did take pics. One day we went to check on them and the nest was completely empty. No sign or trace of the babies. I don’t really suspect a predator inside our house (but who knows). We are at the house about everyday in our spare time working on what we can...I think that there is someway these mamas move their babies...I researched it and could not find anything conclusive, but that’s the most logical conclusion I can determine. Especially after reading some other comments on here of baby birds vanishing without a trace.

That is a very interesting theory and I hope that is what happened. They are just so vulnerable and I have been reading a lot, mice, rats, sqirrels snakes and other birds all prey on these sweet defenseless babies.

That's wonderfully encouraging! Thank you!

Here's an article from Scientific American that helps clarify these issues we've been talking about, including the if and when human disturbance can do harm, as well as birds relocating.

Thank you Deannatoby! I found this paragraph in that article and I do believe that this mama bird moved her babies after we were disturbing her and the babies so much! (Though we never touched the nest or babies)

“In other words, birds, like economists, make cost-benefit decisions. If a bird has invested a lot of time and energy in hatching and rearing its young, that bird is more likely to, if possible, relocate its offspring to a new nesting site, rather than abandon them altogether when a potential predator has discovered the babies.”

I love this thread is active again. I need help! Birds built a nest on my 2nd story deck. The nest is on top of a 6x6 corner post just under the edge of the deck roof. This is not a big area.

6 days ago, the nest and 3 babies fell/were blown from their place. They were def. no more than 2 days old. The nest and one of the babies landed on the deck (a 10 foot drop), one landed on the deck railing (6 foot drop) and a third fell all the way to the grass. Thankfully, they were all 3 still moving and looked OK so I gently scooped them up and put them back in the nest and put the nest back up on the post. The parents were back within the hour and I was quite thrilled.

The next morning I was sad to find one of the babies down in the grass again and not alive. Fast forward to this morning (Saturday) we woke up to 60mph winds that knocked the nest down again. I found one of the babies on my deck (he has been maturing well). And found the nest 50 feet away with the other sibling who sadly, was dead. We put the live baby and nest back up in the original spot again. Within 20 minutes, the parents were back at the nest. I was elated!

Update: Sunday - a parent has been feeding the baby all day.

Note: No wind blowing for now - but I am sure it will get windy in a day or two.

So my question is:

How can we make sure the nest doesn't blow down again? I can't take any more bird tragedy.

Glad I found this thread too. I I also have the issue with disappearing Cardinal babies. We had three beautiful babies hatch and were only three days old when “poof” gone one morning with no disturbance of nest, no fuzz or feathers left behind and totally undisturbed pyracanthas still up against the garage door wall. Im Praying the momma moved them also as there is a lot of traffic near our front porch..So much that our Ring battery has to be recharged every two to three weeks. I’ve googled trying to find any information on Cardinal babies disappearing but can’t find anything.

I found this thread this morning, and although some comments are old, I see some new ones and thought I would share and ask opinions.

A pair of House Finches built a nest next to our front patio in the bushes. We use patio all the time, always sit there, so apparently this did not bother little mom and dad. I didn't even know we had a nest until we started trimming those bushes down and we heard her chirping. So we left that alone. Saturday (2 days ago) we had a horrible storm, with very strong winds that were bending those bushes and all our new trees to the ground. I decided to check on the nest right after the storm and found the nest blown off, mama bird sitting on the branch and 2 baby birds blown out of the nest, but alive. One fell on his back onto the ground (about a 5 feet drop) and another one got stuck in the branches, belly up as well. I am no expert but I read once that you can try to make a nest out of a box and put it back for mama bird to take care of her young. So, I got a Styrofoam faucet cover, put some old towel on the bottom and put the original nest on top of it. I was wearing gloves (although I have read so many times that human scent won't scare mama bird, I didn't want to hurt the babies even more), gently picked the babies up. They were still too young, with eyes closed, not even making sounds, just opening little beaks up. Now, mind this - it was raining for over an hour, just a downpour, spring in Texas can bring very violent storms! Anyways, I put the make-belief nest back into the bush, making sure it is wedged very well in there. I watched it from inside of the house and mama bird was back to take care of them right away! I was thrilled! I did check on the babies later on (feeling this weird responsibility for them). I made a quick video on my phone once mama bird left (the nest is high up enough in the bush that I could not see in) and saw they are both dry and breathing. I kept checking from the window (very discrete) and mama bird kept coming back, feeding them. I checked with the phone again in the morning, babies were good. I saw from inside the house mama bird coming back several times. Sunday night I wanted to give final check and leave baby birds alone. And what I saw made me (a grown woman) cry and lose sleep. One baby was missing completely, the other one laying there without a head. I know, I got too involved in this course of nature. Reading these posts, I am not sure still what happened. Mama bird kept jumping on the branches even on Monday morning, but the baby is gone. My husband said, I should not have interfered, that is Mother Nature. I could not have left them hanging there to die, when I saw them fallen out. But can't stop blaming myself - did I cause the nest to be raided?
No way for me to know, we do not have owls here, nor have I seen hawks. In fact, I was in the backyard resting when this happened, and I did not see any unusual birds out. I have a ring doorbell and can not see any animals on it. Squirrel or bird?
I am sorry for this rant, but if anyone knows what could just snatch the babies like that up and bite one head off clean, I would appreciate the knowledge share. And do mam birds really move the babies? If so, why wouldn't she move them when they fell out, but only sat there looking at them?

So sad!

I wouldn't think you did anything wrong. I have talked to very experienced birders who have tried next rehabilitation themselves with success. What you did was help. What happened afterwards was mother nature, and I don't think related to your actions. Generally we are truly insulated from all of this activity and have no idea how often birds die in the nest. We had chickens a few years ago and came home to find a hen dragged into the woods with only one single "hole" in her throat. It was completely weird and confusing. What predator would take a chicken, kill it, but them leave practically the entire carcass? Things are not always straightforward. I would imagine you have predators with some climbing skills that could have gotten to the nest.

One of my posts above is now "hidden" unless you click on a link to expand the threads. Here is the original post:

"Here's another from an intro to a research article (see below)

"Predation has exerted a strong influence on the evolution of habitat selection and life his- tory traits for many avian species (Martin 1993b). Research on a broad array of ecolog- ical topics requires estimates of avian fecun- dity. Because nest predation is the major cause of nest failure in passerines (Ricklefs 1969; Martin 1992, 1993a, b), researchers have fre- quently expressed concerns that monitoring might artificially increase predation rates (Mayfield 1975, Major 1990, Gotmark 1992).
Predators might be attracted to nests by vi- sual cues, such as the presence of researchers, trampling of vegetation, increased activity of parent birds, and by olfactory cues. Mamma- lian predators are thought to follow tracks in the vegetation and to respond to human scent along the trails or at the nests (Creighton 1971, Wilson 1976, No1 and Brooks 1982, Gotmark 1992, Whelan et al. 1994). In a re- view paper on investigator bias, Gotmark (1992) concluded there was little or no evi- dence that researcher disturbance increased mammalian predation rates. "

I really am trying to do this right. Any accurate info you have would help.

Here is a link that might be useful: article"

Note that the article in the link was a peer reviewed journal in a scientific publication (if the link still works), whereas all the "leave it alone" people could post were codes of conduct type websites, etc.

I hope you continue to help in the future! WE don't want to disturb natural nests, but I think the mother was glad you helped the babies.

Thank you for your kind words, deanna Maine 5b6a! I am that person, I will continue to help. I did learn a lesson to not get to invested in this, as if they were my kids. You are so right, we really do not see how tough life is for wild animals. I grew up in a city and was never an observant person. So now that I am in my 40-s I am learning all these things as I moved to a suburb/country area. I would never touch them unless I absolutely had to.

Last year mockingbirds had babies near our back porch, now I understand why they are so aggressive! So much danger out there! Just because I don't have cats/dogs, doesn't mean they are safe. One of the babies got caught in plastic mesh we put around the tomatoes, and mama bird went crazy, she was flying up to us, screaming chirping! Did that for about 15 minutes until I realized her baby is in trouble. I went to that part of our garden, and freed the baby bird. He was fine, mad at me for putting that mesh up though :)

This thread has been so helpful. So many people have many good advise and I now know I am not the only one that gets invested in these little creatures.

I agree Creeper was a bit aggressive, but they (he/she) probably just didn't want people to treat wild animals as if they are in a petting Zoo. Good intentions but going about it the wrong way.

Thank you again for starting this thread and educating people! I love nature, but Nature knows best.

I had 2 baby robins hatch last Tuesday. On Monday the parents moved the baby’s about 20 yards to another tree in my backyard. I thought my cat r another predator had gotten them becomes they where gone from the original nest. I was SO UPSET. My small dog went under the tree a lot and so did my cat. I was also putting food on the fence for the parents. There’s was a lot of things disturbing the area. I thought for sure something got them but the parents kept forging for food in my back yard and sure enough I heard the baby’s crying for food the next day. Today when the cat went out and got under the tree they moved them too they started dive combing him. I finally spotted them in a old nest in the other tree. It’s a lot higher than the other one was ( about 7 feet off the ground). Anyway all the post I read said they would never move them and if they where gone a predator must have got them. NOT TRUE. THEY GOT MOVED TO ANOTHER TREE CLOSE BY. I hope they make it from there.

Pics of the babies when I first discovered them. Now they’ve been moved to another nest about 20 yards away. CARDINALS WILL MOVE THERE BABIES. I’m praying they make it from there new nest.

Thank you for sharing this comment, HU-719464966! I am glad to know that. Not sure how they would do it, but I guess nature is resilient, and a tiny bird can carry her baby to save it. That is awesome! I wonder if one of my baby birds got saved after the nest got raided and another got decapitated.

I sure hope 1 of yours got saved. I was so happy ( and in shock ) that the babies got moved after reading all the comments that Cardinals don't/cant move there babies. I just wanted people to know that in fact Cardinal can and will move there babies. I leave broken PECANS under the bushes where they forge for food and they Love them, The babies must be enjoying them too, anyway they should be leaving the Nest early next week. Im praying that thy make. I will keep u posted on there success if u want me too ?

That'd be great! I'd appreciate that very much! I'm just glad to know that I'm not the only one that watches these little creatures and worries about them :)

What an encouraging story, mike! So glad to hear they are high and safe. It seems quite a bit of modern research is uncovering a new point: "dumb" creatures are smarter than we think they are! The photo is very sweet. Keep us updated!

Eva, I'm sorry I didn't respond earlier. Did you find your birds anywhere? Looks like you had a beautiful view for a while.

Just a little update on the baby Robins. So far they seem to be doing great, a lot of chirping going on, theyve been in the same tree for a few days now ( its rite next to the one they got moved to ) seems like they should be learning to fly by now to me ? i guess theyll stay up there till the parents decide to let em test there wings. At least theyre safe and they have plenty to eat, plus i keep leaving pecans out for the parents, not sure if the parents are feeding them pecans yet. I know for sure my cat will be happy when they finally fly away so he can have his back yard back.

Well they will be on a ground for a while after they hop out of the nest. So watch your cat :) thank you for an update!

Theyve benn in the same tree ( a huge ligustrum ) for about 3 days now, im guessing there about 16- 17 days old, anyway do you know how long theyll stay in the same tree like that ? Both the parents are still protecting them, one of them is always in the tree with the babies.

After they leave the next, they follow their parents to a new nest. The parents teach them how to find food, but their father will still continue to feed them until they're almost his size. They still look pretty tiny and young when they leave their 1st nest. Ours have moved into the bushes on the edge of our yard. I see the parents, mostly the dad flying back and forth in the yard throughout the day.

Hi, The strange thing happening as well. I newborn baby robins and the next day they were gone. Now I know they were too young to fly with there parents but they seem safe in the

Commenting just to let you know that the comment left by @HU-517676448 is absolute uneducated BS. birds cannot physically move their babies and showing the nest to people wouldnt have been an issue

@Tia Ransom they don’t leave nest this young. OP said less than 24hrs passed

I know HU-**2001., and thank you Figured the poster was just Creeper with a new name (expand older posts to see Creeper's ridiculous comments). Older posts clearly prove HU-*6448 is uneducated, but some people never learn.

"the comment left by @HU-517676448 is absolute uneducated BS. birds cannot physically move their babies and showing the nest to people wouldnt have been an issue"

agree +100

We have a house finch nest in our wreath one brood already hatched and fledged, then they were right back at it again. I see a lot of people who don’t notice a disturbance in the nest when the babies go missing. One thing it might be is crows, we had 4 babies and an unhatched egg and a crow came and took all but 2. It tried to come back, but I think we scared it off. We have video of it going to the nest on our doorbell cam. Crows are smart and like to observe, they will watch mama and papa going to the nest and also people checking on it as well. If you are checking on a nest be very aware of your surroundings

I had 3 robin fledglings come to the door every day to get fed over the last 3 weeks and all 3 are gone overnight in one day. I have foxes and a pine martin in the area so wondering if they are the culprits?