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!

Just checked again and the birds have left the nest. Don't see them anywhere on the ground. Maybe they fledged already and are in a tree? re: How is your box mounted? It should be on a slick pole with a predator baffle. It's a Peterson box on a pole and has a predator cone on the pole. I have no idea how the snake got in there. Been out there for eight years and has produced over 40 BlueBirds.

Sorry about the loss of your Bluebird babies! How sad! It could have been a number of things. Where are you and how hot was it there? It could have been the heat but I have heard of lots of babies doing just fine in this hot hot weather. I added head shields on my boxes for the first time this year to try to keep the box a bit cooler. Blowflies are a big problem this time of year. Were there any grayish short worm looking things in the nest when you took it out? I have lost baby Blues to blowflies before and try to watch the nests for them especially during the second nestings to clean it out or change it if I do see the larva. Also if something happened to one or both of the adults obviously the babies would die, one parent could feed them though and keep them alive. Did you feed mealworms at all? Has anyone around your neighborhood, or yourself sprayed you lawn or yard with pesticides or herbicides? That can kill baby birds when the parents feed them bugs that have the spray on them. Just some ideas, sometimes you just never know. Oh another thought, did you have a sparrow spooker up? Do you have any House Sparrows around, they will go in a nestbox and peck the babies to death, did the babies look pecked at all or where they dead too long to tell? So sorry this happened. Donna

Hi Anita- so so sad! I truly hate to hear that news! The males are such beauties! The only thing I can think is pesticides. Maybe the males were hunting in a yard/ area where pesticides had been used & the babies were being fed from that same hunting area? If it didn't look like any foul play took place, that's the only thing I can imagine. Some babies are affected by heat this time of year, but it's usually when they're younger. You know what? There are lots of bluebird experts on bluebirdnutcafe.com. You may want to inquire there to see if anyone else has any ideas. So glad the TRES nest was successful! So very sorry to hear about your bluebirds! Nicole