Hi Kathleen- I'll address you since the other posts are old. I am so very sorry that you have experienced this. Did you read what the responses were to the older post of one that lost a bluebird on the nest? I would just repeat everything that they said. If absolutely no sign of injury, I would suspect lawn pesticides, but considering what happened to the 1st person that posted & didn't see signs of injury on her bluebird, it did turn out to be house sparrows. I would highly suspect this. Do you think the female is dead too? If so, again I would be suspicious of HOSP. Answering your question, the male would not starve himself, nor is he able to brood eggs. If the female died too, the eggs wouldn't have hatched because the female is the one to incubate the eggs. She has a brooding patch on her lower abdomen that the male doesn't have. If she is alive, she may not be returning to nest because of the failed nest situation, especially if there was foul play. Make sure you know that she is not returning before removing the nest & eggs. If she is alive, she will probably try to find a new mate. Without repeating too much, make sure your birdhouse is on a pole with a baffle & put a sparrow spooker up after the 1st egg. If you know for sure that the nest has been abandoned & you don't get any activity, you may want to change the location of the box (birdhouse). If you immediately get a house sparrow setting up shop, then you'll know that was most likely the culprit. Again, if female is not returning, now would be the time to get a Van Ert trap for your house to trap the male & female HOSP. If you do, make sure you are monitoring every hour if possible so you don't trap a native bird. They can die in there if without food for too long. One of the previous posts left a website for the Van Ert trap. Again, the previous posts left great advice for your situation. This site is not as active as it used to be for bluebirders, so you may want to post to bluebirdnut.com. Lots of bluebird experts are on that site like this one used to have. That's where I go whenever I need advice. BTW, I lived in Atlanta for ten years (live in AL now). Very sorry to hear about your bluebird tragedy. Hope you'll have another pair come for a future nesting, but definitely get that sparrow spooker!

Sorry to hear the bad news,I also lost at least 3 in one box,and all 5 in another box,and lost 6 chickadee nestlings, all were due to fledge. about 1-1/2 weeks ago,we also had cooler temps.and lots of rain that week.I am thinking it was in fact the weather also.You did everything right,all we can do is try.You have cleaned the box,they should renest within a week or so.If you don't have other boxes available,now might be a good time to add one.I like to have more then one box to choose from,and it doubles your fun and stress LOL! Good luck Matt

Hello, I am so sad. I had a successful bluebird nest of 5 eggs. Attached a sparrow spooker after first egg hatched. Mom hatched all five eggs and babies were 9 days old today. This morning went to straighten Mylar strips on sparrow spooker and box was quiet. Soon discovered one baby blue bird dead inside nest and 4 were missing! No evidence of the four. What happened? Can sparrows kill and then push a 9 day old baby out of nest? I saw sparrows on top of box about 3 hours after I discovered the babies gone and one dead. Please help!

I was mowing the lawn in my backyard and could smell a foul odor when I would walk near my deck. I knew something was dead back there. I was surprised to see on my deck stairs three dead baby bluebirds right near each other. What would cause this? Was this one of the parents throwing the birds out of their own nest or an attack by another bird to just kill them? Thanks.