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Bluebird babies died on fledge date
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Posted by trinay (My Page) on Mon, May 31, 10 at 13:18
| I have been monitoring a nest of bluebirds. Everything was going just as it should. One bird fledged 2 days ago. However, here in Washington State, we had a 3 day rainstorm. The fledged baby stayed at the bottom of the pole under the box in the grass. I put some cardboard gently over the place he was standing to protect him as it was nonstop rain. Yesterday, he was alive and so were his nestmates still in the box. They had not fledged yet. The parents were busy feeding all of them the mealworms I provided. The babies in the box yesterday sounded weaker than usual but I thought the parents were feeding them less in order to get them to fledge. This morning I went out and all the babies were dead. There were originally 5 eggs and 4 of them hatched. They do not appear to have been attacked by anything. One had obviously died earlier than the others as it was smaller.I took photographs of all and removed the nest. The swallows were already moving in, but the parents are still here. They did not abandon them. Can anyone help me understand what went wrong? Was it just the bad weather? Was I overfeeding the mealworms (There were lots in the nest)? I am heartbroken. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Bluebird babies died on fledge date
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| It sounds like you did everything right to me. My guess would be some type of parasite, but you may want to wait for someone more experienced than I to respond. |
RE: Bluebird babies died on fledge date
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| 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 |
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