3 young dead Blackbirds in garden

[blueherb777]

We have a Blackbirds nest at the back of our garden and have been watching the parents going into the nest to feed the young.
But this morning I went into our garden and found 2 young dead Blackbirds at the edge of the garden and later found another 1 dead in the edge of our small pond?

What could have happened to kill all 3 young ?
There is no sign of being attacked.

[valleyforge]

Hi blueherb777 and welcome to the WAB forum,

In cases such as these it is often impossible to know for sure what might have happenned.

However it is always worth considering that if you or your near neighbours have used pesticides, rodenticides, or slug pellets in your gardens, that these might easily have been inadvertantly ingested by the youngsters within the invertibrates provided as food by their parents.

[Pigeon feather]

It sounds as if a cat may have been the culprit, often there is no obvious sign apart from puncture wounds (if you check under the feathers) made by it's teeth, cats will kill and then play with them for a bit before losing interest, if it was a wild animal that got them it probably would have taken them to eat so my money would be on a cat having done this, really sorry to hear this

[RKB]

This is a classic sign of a cat. The young blackbirds probably fledged early today, and a local cat went on a killing spree due to the easy targets. A bird (Sparrowhawks, Crow) would have carried them away and probably only taken one, A fox would not have left them, but a cat will kill whatever it can find and leave them lying around.

There's little you can do, except to have zero tolerance for cats in your garden (chase them out, throw things at them), but even then you can't be there 24 hrs a day, and they usually do this very early in the morning.

[blueherb777]

Thanks for the replies.

What is a worry (if it is cats)is that we have a lot of Sparrows around at the moment.Next door have thick hedging and we have seen an increase in numbers recently.I noticed them picking up nesting so it will not be long before we have young around.
Also I know Blackbirds can have 2/3 broods,so we hope they will have better luck with their next go ?

What can we do to lessen the threat of Cats ?

We used to have Greyhounds so did not see Cats in the Garden !!

[Jim Ford]

Originally Posted by blueherb777

What can we do to lessen the threat of Cats ?

You can't - cat owners consider it's their pets' right to roam your garden and kill the wildlife!

Jim

[barquar]

I have 2 young blackbirds in my garden with the male feeding them. We also have cats prowling around and these young birds are on the ground alot.Just hope the cats dont get at them so far they are still here one took a bath today in my water tray. also seen them tossing little clumps off dead grass about and trying to eat the dried meal worms thats put out.Hen not interested in feeding them now
Barquar

[RKB]

Originally Posted by Jim Ford

You can't - cat owners consider it's their pets' right to roam your garden and kill the wildlife!

Jim

Agree, there's nothing you can do if the owner is irresponsible and allows their cat to roam. The only action you can take is to have 'zero tolerance' when you see one in your garden - throw water at it, or a clump of earth (it wont harm it, but will scare it), shout at them. Make them unwelcome. Your neighbour might not be best pleased, but you can explain about the chicks. It's your garden after all, and it's their cat intruding on it.

[AndrewB]

Originally Posted by barquar

I have 2 young blackbirds in my garden with the male feeding them. We also have cats prowling around and these young birds are on the ground alot.Just hope the cats dont get at them so far they are still here one took a bath today in my water tray. also seen them tossing little clumps off dead grass about and trying to eat the dried meal worms thats put out.Hen not interested in feeding them now
Barquar

I also saw 2 young blackbirds in the garden today foraging on their own, with no sign of a parent. They stayed fairly close together so were presumably from the same brood.

They were both fairly lively and active and seemed to be doing Ok, but I could'nt help but wonder if they had lost or been abandoned by their parents.