blackbird Fledglings

[Pipa]

Heeelp, our neighbours across the street had blackbirds nesting in thier tree, this evening we spotted 2 babys out of the nest, my they are small, they stumble on thier face when they fluttered across the road and have no feathers on thier butt area,

One of them nestled itself into the corner of our wall in the grass (which is not very long) and i havent seen the mom or the dad come back to see to it, is that normal, its getting dark now and its sitting there not chirping or anything but i have not seen the parents go to it in a few hours now,(i have seen them flying around the area tho,)

why havent they took the baby into thick foliage? its just sitting in our lawn... wont it die in the night if its left exposed? we have tons of bushes in our garden yet they left it in the lawn..

[tcvarlh]

Nature isn't always nice Pipa and the parents may have been disturbed and abandoned the nest with fledglings. You are right the youngster will not survive the night. It makes me sad too knowing that something freshly born must die but I have come to see that life is a circle and the loss of one bird may mean the life of thousands of other creatures. Nothing is wasted, not even tears.

To try to raise the baby yourself is a lot of work, hourly feeding of caterpillars and spiders and lord knows what else. Which is why bird parents are always in a mad rush.

Get some info about raising baby birds ready for next time.

h

[Pipa]

i dont think they have come out the nest too early they look about the right size, although they do look a bit smaller than the ones we had last year, im just concerned hes not under much cover in the lawn, and its pretty windy out there, i have no idea where they took the other fledgling too, im going to be worried about this one over night,

when they first came out the nest, the fledgling was hopping around the lawn following mum and dad but then it hid in the corner and mom and dad took off and didnt come back to him yet, (but they were still flying around the neighbouring gardens and on and off our wall and such gathering insects, will have a look in the morning, i'll be gutted if they dont make it though as the pair we had nesting in our tree abandoned thier nest and all the babys died (they were very very young chics tho) so i was relying on these ones making it,

going to be an anxious night !!

[tcvarlh]

I'll keep my fingers X'd

h

[Pipa]

well the fledgling made it through the night YEY , i spotted him this morning sitting in the lawn beside our strawberry plants..

later in the morning though i found him sitting on our garden path right at our front gate (which opens onto the road) and the same gate the neighbours cats come through... so i watched, mom came tofeed him twice.. and baby still sat there even though it looked like mum was trying to encourage it into the hedge nearby..

anyway our neighbours let thier cat out, so i decided since the fledgling had no chance at all sitting in full view in a dangerous spot i went out and picked it up and moved it into some foliage (close by dont worry mom will still hear him when he calls)

hope i did the right thing, he would stand no chance left where he was especially when i knew the cats were out and looking,

here is a pic of him this morning which i got from my kitchen window (the spot where he is on that photo.. just up from there is where i moved him into.. lots of foliage)

[spudkaty]

I am like you when there are baby blackbirds about. Not many seem to make adulthood and get picked off by cats and magpies. I wonder why they don't seem to be as fully feathered as other garden birds who seem to be able to fly as soon as they are out the nest. It takes ages for blackbird chicks to get to the flying stage.

[Pipa]

Originally Posted by spudkaty

I am like you when there are baby blackbirds about. Not many seem to make adulthood and get picked off by cats and magpies. I wonder why they don't seem to be as fully feathered as other garden birds who seem to be able to fly as soon as they are out the nest. It takes ages for blackbird chicks to get to the flying stage.

i dont understand nature on this one either, as far as i know blackbirds are pretty much the only common garden bird that leave the nest about 10 days before they can even fly.. seems pretty dumb of nature to do such a thing, they are just sitting targets

and as for this baby, well he just came out of the hiding place i put him in.. the cats were in my garden so i chased the cat out, saw mum feeding the baby and seen her trying to encourage it into the tree/bushes... but he wouldnt follow.. after mum left i went and shoo'd the baby back into the bushes..soon as i walk away he just hops back out and sits in the lawn chirping away (seems to like the lawn this one) so i am very stressed now, i spend all day watching it out the window to make sure the cats aren't coming back.. i'll be a nervous wreck before this one takes flight

sadly i cant see how this one will escape the cats for upto 10days or more, 2 of our neighbours cats spend alot of time in our garden and this baby just will not hide under foliage, he sits in the middle of the lawn everytime, i'll keep the cats out as much as i can but in the early hours of the morning like 4am onwards i wont be there to protect it.. Ahhh.. i have a cat myself but she's very old and a house cat so she's not a worry, but our neighbours cats are young and very fast

[jaelen]

Poor little thing! Keeping fingers crossed for him- here's hoping the cats keep busy elsewhere today!

jaelen

[Pipa]

me too, i'll be over the moon if he makes it he's ever so cute too, first time i moved him into a safer area he just sat there and let me pick him up, didnt chirp,squeal flutter or anything..

now i just shoo'd him gently with my hands and he tried to peck me LOL ah bless. if only they knew how dangerous it was for them there, i cant see him now so not sure where he went too im hoping he went into the bushes out of sight i dont want to keep going out and getting in their way, so i just left him last time he came out, he's not going to stay put so im just wasting my time trying to get him back in, plus it will be stressing out the chick so i'll just let him go where he goes and do my best to watch for any cats coming in

keeping my fingers crossed he finds a nice bush to sit in and stays there

[Kayleigh]

He needs to be in the trees overnight or he wont make it I had two living in my garden for over 2 weeks there is a section fenced off behind my pond and the cats were kept out by the dog on the patio being carefully supervised while she was out they have fully fledged now and gone.
Baby blackbirds often come out of the nest early like this try to keep the cats out in the day and shoo it into cover if you see it in the open..
This is all you can do..