First question is what is the nestbox mounted on? If it is on a wooden post or a fence please remove it or it will happen again. Is it near trees at all or a fence where a squirrel could jump to it? It sounds like raccoons to me though. Do you know if there were eggs in the nest yet? If not the adults are probably ok and just left, if there were eggs then the female probably got eaten along with the eggs which is why nestboxes should be mounted on slick metal poles (electrical conduit) preferrably with a predator baffle. I would remove the nest and if the box is not mounted properly take it down until you can mount it the right way. Sorry this happened...good luck. Donna

Could be,...do you clean the house annually? This is a must do thing, another problem is here, the house wrens fill most of the houses with sticks at the end of season and after birds have fledged. I was waiting a bit too long to do it this spring and when the tree swallows arrived I noticed that nobody went in and out,...telling me get them cleaned! Then they were staking claims after I cleaned them. Some houses are stuffed with dry mushrooms,..could be the northern flying Squirrel, one house I counted 28 mushrooms! One good thing is, the house wrens migrate here late in spring when most of the houses are occupied,.. they're not here yet.

Wow Linda. This is interesting. I can't wait to see what others have to say about it. I wonder why the first 2 chicks died. I have seen Carolina Chickadee parents leave one baby behind when they had a nest of 7 chicks. That particular one was too slow coming out of the box I think, and they all just took off and left it behind. I thought at the time that it was just survival of the fittest. With 7 surviving chicks, they had their hands full so to speak. I supposed it was critical that they all fledge close together so that the parents could keep up with them.~~Angie (also NW GA)

I am certain he will do just fine! Birds have an amazing way of adapting to the things life throws at them. Their legs are pretty fragile, and from my time rehabilitating hundreds of birds, they can life a full healthy life with just one leg when something happens to the other one. I would guess that he's got a system worked out - one that it seems you've seen some of, coming with his buddies. There will always be bullies that pick on the weak, but no doubt he will hang around and take advantage of the feeder when the bullies are not there. Perhaps you could put out a second feeder that the birds could go between, to give more room for sharing (you mentioned putting the second feeder out, great idea! put it a few yards from the first one). If the leg is healed up he has had the injury for a while and has adapted. A bird the size of a titmouse can go very little time without eating and drinking or they will die, so if he was having problems he'd long since have gone. He must be getting food at least a few times per day :) As for sleeping, a lot of birds actually choose to sleep one legged and tuck the other one up into their feathers. I've got a little bird of my own who does it. Definitely make sure the feeder has a good stock of seeds through the winter, but if the little guy has made it this long no doubt he'll keep on trucking. Having a steady food source is probably immensely helpful to him!