Hi All,

I have a situation with two sparrows that have built a nest in my bird house. I think the female has abandoned the nest because her eggs didn't hatch. And the male is still staying with the nest calling her all day every day. It’s been like this for the past 2 days and I have not seen the female, who was usually in the nest most of the day before.

The male found the birdhouse about 2 months ago. He started guarding the house and trying to call and attract a female. Finally, about a month ago, a female came to the bird house. They mated and started building nest.

I found 3 eggs in the house about 3 weeks ago. However, there was only one egg left shortly after that. I’m not sure what happened to the other egg.

Despite that, the female kept staying in the nest. About 3 or 4 days ago, I saw them mating again. But all of a sudden, about 2 days ago, the male started desperately calling on and around the nest all the time, and I haven’t seen the female since.

That egg is still in there. It should have hatched since it’s been at least 3 weeks. The weather hasn’t been that hot. The hottest it ever got was about 93 F. I’m in Alexandria VA, US.

I have also only opened the bird house and seen the eggs 4 times, and I made sure I waited until they both left to check on the eggs.

Update: the male is now taking nesting materials out of his old nest in the birdhouse. He has been taking the materials to mostly a tree nearby. I also saw him going to some other places. Could he be rebuilding a nest somewhere else? He is still calling near the birdhouse though.

I feel so bad for the male and am also worried that something bad might have happened to the female. What could be happening? Is there anything I could do?

Thank you very much for your time. I would really appreciate any advice!