|
Welcome to
The Bluebird Box
since 1995 |
Dead Nestlings in the BoxIn addition to Messages that have appeared in the Bluebird Mailing Lists (e.g., Dead Tree Swallows in Nestbox) on this topic, the following are on the Audubon Society of Omaha website: Predators and Problems On The Bluebird Trail Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2002 19:44:12 -0400 Susan, Be prepared to remove a dead baby, meaning have vinyl gloves or leather gloves or something that you won't mind touching a dead baby with. And take a baggie or recycled plastic bag with you to put the dead baby in. Then take the dead baby far from the nest to avoid predators being attracted. This is probably one of the most difficult things for newer bluebirders to have to deal with. However, prevention means you can easily save the rest of the babies!!!! 12 days is not to old to go check!!!!!! Let us know what you
discover. And if you need ANY support just give a holler. :-)
H Susan654"at"aol.com wrote: Hi All! ... From: "College Town" collegetown"at"I-55.com I was wandering what would have happened "naturally" if I had not checked the box and removed the dead baby. I would assume that the bird would decay and draw flies. Eventually, I would think the other babies would catch a disease and die too. Would the parents be able to somehow remove the bird or would they continue feeding the other babies while the dead bird is in the nest? I was not trying to be graphic, but I was curious. Thanks, Kim ... Date: Wed, 05 Jun 2002 14:49:29 -0400 Haleya Priest Amherst MA I find that once the babies are older and it is hot outside if I lose one, wow, it can be disaster for the rest in the box. Plus the smell attracts predators of all kinds. Hope this helps! :-) H College Town wrote: I was wandering what would have happened "naturally" if I had not ... Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2002 08:41:26 -0500 (Central Daylight
Time) The Millers wrote: Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2002 10:52:04 -0400 Haleya Priest Amherst MA Are they using low toxic chemicals? Most golf courses are now careful to not overload etc, especially if they are looking for Audubon status. I wouldn't assume pesticide poisonings just yet. So many bluebirders have trails on golf courses without any ill effects. Is there a farmer's field nearby??? That would be more likely to be the problem. But we've had just terrible weather - and this is why I want to know when the bulk of the babies died. As you know I lost 46 of 62 babies up to May 20, and then another of the nests died after. It may be that you need to make sure all boxes are cleaned out and then let them nest again. If it is toxins, you'll have a better clue because if they all die again, we won't be able to point our fingers at the weather as much now that we're mid-June (knock on wood). Let us know as much info as you can. :-) H Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2002 15:26:05 -0400 Hi, Haleya and Bluebird-Lers: I'll try to answer all you questions in order. Haleya Priest wrote (Tue, 11 Jun 2002 10:52:04 -0400): I did get several suggestions from others. None seemed to match the effects I observed. I must stress that I have NOT be monitoring these boxes myself. I early May I taught the groundskeeper (who install 5 boxes himself) how to monitor and gave him some sample datasheets. Until I visited yesterday to see what the Eagle Scout project on June 1st had done (they were installing 30 more boxes). At that time, the groundskeeper told me that he had had 100% mortality (14 of 14) including some in the past couple of days. We went out in a cart and retrieved the somewhat smelly nest with dead young still intact. But can you tell me/us exactly when the deaths occurred????
Did most I'll have to look at the datasheets which I did not have time to do yesterday. But the short answer is that 5 young perished in the past week, probably no more than two days ago as there were not yet any maggots visible yet. How many boxes. How far apart are the boxes? At least 3-4 boxes have been involved for a total of 5 broods. Were eggs also abandoned? Not that I know of. Are they using low toxic chemicals? Most golf courses are
now The groundskeeper stated that no pesticides have been applied recently. Is there a farmer's field nearby??? That would be more likely
to be There is an orchard adjacent to the course, but about 1/2-mile away from those boxes where deaths occurred. There are suburban lawns with lawn services about 1/4-mile away through a strip of wooded wetland. The bluebirds tend to stay on the opposite side of "Mt. Trashmore" from the suburban area. We did have easterly winds the last couple of days which would have put the boxes down-wind of the stack where they burn off the bio-gasses. I'll be investigating that possible avenue of poisoning. But we've had just terrible weather - and this is why I want
to I'm not sure if the first clutches died during that period. I know that when I visited on May 1st there was a nest with 5 eggs and a nest with 4 young which I judged to be about 5 days old. I believe those young died just before fledging. My notes say that the weather was mild to cool until the 18th when the really cold weather arrived for a day and two nights. The 19th and 20th were mild during the day, however, and those 4 young should have been sufficiently feathered out to stand it. It may be that you need to make sure all boxes are cleaned
out and There are a couple of suspects in my mind. It could be toxins from the boxes themselves which were stained. The groundskeeper bought them and will check out whether the insides were stained. Or it could be so out-gassing from the landfill. There is a series of pipes which takes most of the gas to a facility where it is burned off, but it is possible that some is not caught, or that the flue gasses blew over the boxes. That should happen only seldom as the gas-burning facility was sited to be downwind of the golf course in most weather. We did have some wind from the facility to the boxes in the past couple of days. I intend to monitor as often as possible in the next few weeks to determine if it is a wind direction-related problem. I'll also be watching closely to see if the tree swallows are similarly affected. Let us know as much info as you can. :-) H --Jill Miller TheMillers"at"millermicro.com -- Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2002 17:10:44 -0400 Hi Jill, However, you mention the stained boxes. YIKES I would check on that right away - that sounds like it could be the culprit. The other things you mention are also noteworthy but now I really am convinced it probably doesn't have anything to do with the golf course use of chemicals. I don't think the AG land nearby and suburban yards don't either sound like the problem. The out gassing??? Not sure about that. Again, check when these deaths occurred. Even if only one nest has died recently, but if the others were before May 20th - then It could be weather related and this last brood is an unknown. Yes, will be interesting to see what happens to the TRES. Keep us posted and let us know the dates of deaths. :-) H Dick and Jill Miller wrote: Hi, Haleya and Bluebird-Lers: ... From: "Doug Rohde" d.rohde"at"attbi.com Jill, If the outgassing is responsible you should find other small birds and animals dead in the area. (The wind dispersion affect makes that pretty unlikely.) If the problem is confined to just the nestbox birds, then the likely culprit is the nestbox stain. Doug ----- Original Message ----- ... From: "Karen Louise Lippy" brdbrain"at"superpa.net Phil, We had 20 chicks in one area of our park die in one week. I was called to a nearby residence to check on chicks after the hen was found dead on a picnic tabel with no apparent trauma. Upon opening the box, we found the male, also dead and 5 hungry begging chicks. Took the chicks to be rehabbed and all are doing well. Other areas of our trail are doing fine. This weekend, I was called by the park naturalist to examine 3 more nests of dead chicks. No sign of blowfly. Can't figure it out. Never had this many deaths this late in the season. I suspected pesticides. But if so, how comes other areas are doing well and are also near fields? Susan who mentioned many birds dying lives about 50 miles from me. My brother told me he has found numerous birds of many species lying in his yard and the neighbor's also. Hope someone figures out what is going on. It does appear to be something "going around". Karen from South Central PA ... Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2002 19:30:03 -0700 (PDT) Well, after going out today and checking boxes, found about 8 more nestlings dead inside dead. One box, the babies hadn't been dead long and the other, really decomposed. Did the female get killed??? I have more tree swallows and house wrens since after the cold spell just over a month ago. Hard to believe that just 30 days ago it was in the 30's here in Ohio and now its in the 90's. Darrell in N.E. Ohio Stark County Coordinator Ohio Bluebird Society From: leonar26"at"msu.edu We have had bluebirds nesting on our property for many years, and we were tickled that we had two nests of parents this year....with 11 eggs. Ten of them hatched and were doing fine......babies about four days old.....when we went out of town last Friday. When I checked them on our return Sun. PM the babies seemed to be weak and I didn't see the adult females who usually came to the mealworm feeders when I whistle. Last night the same thing happened, only this time, the Peterson nest box that had six babies that had looked healthy on Friday had dead babies. The father came to the mealworm feeder, and flew to the box from it, without going in. However, I have not seen the mother. The second box had three of the four babies who were still opening their beaks when I opened the box to check on them, but the mother wasn't anywhere to be seen. She is one who has been coming to this same site for three years. I know this because each spring all I have had to do is whistle and this pair....the father of which disappeared about two weeks ago.....would immediately come to the mealworm feeder if they were in the area. I did drop a couple of mealworms into the open mouths of the babies, after waiting for about 15 minutes to see if the mother showed up. Maybe I shouldn't have done that, but I felt so helpless. What might be happening to "our" birds? This is the first time that anything like this has happened. We have always had several successful broods for the past ten years, and these boxes do have predator guards on them. Could West Nile be an issue? None of these parents seemed sick or diseased, and the babies seemed to be fine at about four days of age. I'm sick about this and am hoping to get some insight from this list. Thanks in advance for any advice, information, or suggestions! Cheryll Leonard From: hubertrap"at"webtv.net (Joe Huber) Hi Cheryll, There are a couple of things that may have happened. This could be the result of Blow Fly larva sucking blood from chicks or maybe something happened t the female. The female continues to rood the hicks for several days after hatching. If the temperature has bee low a night they could ave gotten too cold. You will be removing the nest since all chicks are dead so
check in nest or under nest for blow fly larva. They are short
thick larva. If the male can find a mate there is still time
for another nest this summer. Charter member NABS, Charter member OBS, Life member OBS Joe
Huber http://community.webtv.net/hubertrap/HOUSESPARROWCONTROL
http://community.webtv.net/hubertrap/RoostingBluebirds 27.1171494 N Lo -82.4124222 W From: leonar26"at"msu.edu ... From: "Rudy Benavides" rbenavid"at"hotmail.com leonar26"at"msu.edu wrote: Could West Nile be an issue? None of these parents seemed sick
or The parents also face many hazards every day during their comings and goings, sometimes from predators such as small hawks, sometimes as a result of other things. Yesterday, while driving through our residential community, a bird flying across the road was hit by the car directly in front of me. The bird flew out of the bushes next to a house and may have been on his way to forage or possibly heading back to a nest. Accidents like that are most unfortunate but happen at this time of year with all this flurry of nesting related activity. Concerning WNV....Is msu.edu Michigan State or Mississippi State,,,, not sure where you are located. Reports of West Nile Virus in the midwest normally begin sometime around mid-July when it is a little warmer....earlier in the south. Joe Huber already raised the possibility of hypothermia on the young. What have the temps been like there lately? With us it's been a wet, chilly spring. Good luck the rest of the season. Rudy From: Paula [mailto:PaulaZ"at"columbus.rr.com]
I am very sad to report that the 5 offspring of Lois and Clark did not make it to fledging. I checked box on 4/27 and everything was fine - due to fledge May 1. I checked box today and all 5 were dead. There was not a mark on them that I could see, so I have to wonder if something happened to the parents. Maybe cold weather at night - do not know. ...[subsquent post] I actually made a mistake in my angst with reporting to list. Babies hatched probably on 4/21 and I checked box on 4/27. They were fine then - about 6 days old. Parents were both there then too. Checking box on 5/3 and all were dead - look to be only about 7 days old - feathers still in shaft. They were actually not scheduled to fledge until May 9. My guess is something happened to the female and they were not brooded during cold weather. Weekly nest checks sometimes leave something to be desired, I guess. That is one reason I love my EABL in my yard. I can keep a very close watch on things without being very invasive. Just daily observation of the parents' behavior tells me whether things are going well or not. A quick peek in the box when mom is off the nest is reassuring too. Paula Z Powell (Central) Ohio From: Dottie Roseboom [mailto:rosedot"at"mtco.com]
I'm so sorry to hear about this! I was really rooting for Lois & Clark! I was formerly employed by the state of IL doing toxicity studies. So naturally, I wondered if you noticed any dying vegetation within feeding range of the nestbox? Any herbicide or insecticide is extremely toxic to nestlings under 10 days old. Depending on the toxin, sometimes bloating OR bruising/hemorrhaging occurs. A few poisons show little outward indications. Some states have very active DNR departments that will try to trace poisonings, if the death is recent. In Il, we have mosquito spraying, weed-spraying, fly-spraying, and tick-spraying done for the "city folk" who moved to the country. (sorry, about the dig) Also farmers sometimes have pesticide spillage on a road as they are going field to field. Any insect caught in this spray will be a danger to a nestling. Your right, that this is one aspect where daily observation would have helped determine if the mother was alive & brooding through the cold weather. Some days in bluebirding are not as good as others. May tomorrow be better. Dottie Roseboom Peoria IL (central - zone 5) From: Bruce Burdett [mailto:blueburd"at"tds.net] Carol Jean, SOMETIMES, and I stress the "sometimes," young Tree Swallows will not be able to climb up from the nest to the exit hole, and will exhaust themselves trying. These swallows have powerful wings for strenuous flying, but their legs and phalanges, as you may have noticed, are relatively puny. They are great fliers, but not very strong climbers. If a chick is undernourished and under-strength for some reason, he might not be able to make that crucial ascent to the opening. In other words, it could be an outright example of the survival of the fittest. Only the strongest and most agile birds will live to pass on their genes to the next generation. This is one reason for roughing up, somehow, the inner wall of the house between the nestcup and the hole, just to give the chicks a little extra toehold. I always use 7/8" lumber that is rough on one side, and put the rough side of the front board inside. Some builders score that inner surface with kerfs (saw cuts) in order to provide a little ladder there. We see relatively high attrition among Tree Swallows. Some adults actually die inside the house for no apparent reason, and we find them there. One theory is that they arrive after their northerly migration in a severely debilitated, worn-out state. In general, large clutch sizes of a species go hand in hand with higher than average attrition, and Tree Swallows routinely lay large clutches. Bruce Burdett, SW NH From: Cher [mailto:bluebirdnut"at"a-znet.com] Sent: Sunday, June 27, 2004 4:02 PM Subject: Re: dead nestlings Sounds like what happened to my TRES nesting -- perhaps I was thrown off track by the fact that there were what appeared to me to be blowfly larvae in the nest, though not in sufficient numbers, according to some, to have killed them. Are we seeing some sort of new TRES disease or congenital condition? My other TRES nesting fledged just fine. Cher - From: Dottie, Hickory Hollow, Brown County, Indiana [mailto:yumyumkatts"at"voyager.net] Same here--this morning. My family of Tree Swallows were AOK yesterday evening. They were big and I knew they were ready to fledge. Sticking their heads out the hole and mom and pop feeding on the fly by. Like Wendell's pix. Up this morning and looked at the BB supergourd that the Tree Swallows took (it's paired with a BB nest box) before I had coffee and thought something looked strange. Ran down in my pj's and, when I got to the gourd, I saw a dead TS baby with it's head hanging out the hole. I know mom and pop TS would not leave a baby unless something was wrong. I'm wondering if the baby was too weak--didn't get enough to eat--or was defective in some way and mom and pop knew it. I also would like suggestions on what could have happen to the TS baby. It looked OK to me. Dottie, Hickory Hollow From: Carol Jean Berrett [mailto:caroljea"at"athenet.net] I have been monitoring a tree swallow family with six hatchlings. All matured well and were fully feathered and fledging. But now I notice no further fledging (no little heads peeking out of the box) and I go to check the box and find two dead fledglings, the others apparently fledged and gone. The dead birds were mature, fully feathered, and looked ready to fledge. They do not look damaged from an attack of any kind. What might have caused their deaths? From: Keith & Sandy Kridler [ mailto:txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net ] Where another 3/4" rain fell in 15 minutes on Saturday! Pouring again this morning! Everything is getting flooded again and Hummingbirds drank 1/2 gallon of sugar water yesterday! As we can see by the pictures that Glenn is taking that these baby birds grow extremely rapidly. These baby birds are attacked by many different types of insects. Lice & mites are common in nests where the adults bring in feathers from chickens, waterfowl or even from dead bird carcasses. Young birds are not immune yet to diseases like West Nile Virus just simply another form of one of the many different types of mosquito borne encephalitis strains already common across the USA. Lice, mites or fleas can spread diseases from a sick sibling to a healthy one in a nest. Avian flu is being found again in commercial chicken flocks in Texas right in our area (Sulphur Springs, TX to my west about 35 miles) and has been traced and linked to WILD ducks. Bad thing about this is the only common ducks in this area right now are Wood Ducks and the Black-Bellied Tree-Ducks! Nearly all other ducks headed north months ago. Most wild adult birds have developed immunity to this and HUNDREDS of other diseases, bacteria, fungus and everything else they commonly encounter. Just as with humans contacting German measles, mumps, chicken pox ETC. occasionally the first time an infant is exposed to a disease like these or something more lethal like botulism, sometimes it will kill them. It is common for adult birds to carry a disease to their young that can wipe out the whole family. Those that survive that first exposure might be immune or more resistant later in life. Small pox and Bubonic Plague and house rats & house mice in Europe were common but unknown to Native American Indians and spread across the America's like wildfire. Europeans took Syphilis and other STD's back to Europe with them along with tobacco and corn! Besides blood sucking blowflies you also have swarms of mosquito's, buffalo flies, black flies ETC. that feed on bird blood and can be so numerous on occasion as to kill young birds. What about a spider bite or bee, wasp or hornet sting? A wasp or bumble bee inspecting a nestbox might get attacked by a baby bird and retaliate by stinging the bird. Is this lethal? Most of the time it probably would not be but sometimes a single bee sting can kill a human. Look at the dead birds carefully, are they stuck in the old nest? I found that fluffy polyester fiber stuff in SEVERAL more nestboxes yesterday. Birds have scaly legs and this very thin fiber cut under and between the scales on the feet of the House Sparrow baby that was "tied" down to the old nest and died. Look at the back end of the dead birds to see if they had diarrhea that would indicate some form of digestive upset condition from natural or manmade causes. Then again if you do not check your boxes EVERY DAY until the young fledge you don't really know whether the birds starved to death or if the other birds died one by one and the parents removed them and the others never really fledged only you thought they did. People were just arrested in Victoria, Texas for killing gulls with paintball guns and somewhere baby chicks died in the nest because their parents did not come back from feeding on doughnuts tossed in the air for gull "bait". I am seeing a LOT of birds dead on highways this month. Shawn and the truck he was riding in was sprayed with a crop duster plane last week near a huge field of sugarcane. Enough that it speckled the windshield. (And I fed a 1/2 gallon of sugar water to the Hummingbirds yesterday:-))) ...Pesticides and herbicides kill a few mom and dad birds every year. Weather has a huge effect on the amount and quality of the feed available for birds. When temperatures are below 45*F swallows have a hard time finding any flying insects. Some cities spent millions of $ spraying for West Nile Virus carrying mosquito's to make panicky humans happy and this spray kills all other types of insects that happen to get a lethal dose. Fewer insects make adults work harder and fly further to find food. Sometimes they run into predators or their hearts or other organs simply wear out. About 1/4 of all of the adult swallows alive today will die within 12 months, maybe more. This makes for an awful lot of orphans out there in nestboxes. KK From: Cher [mailto:bluebirdnut"at"a-znet.com] I posted this past week about my TRES nestings -- Nest A successfully fledged from a wooden nestbox on one side of the yard. Nest B's nestlings were found dead the same day (they were 3-4 days behind Nest A). I haven't seen any TRES around, to speak of. My Bluebird fledglings have been chased away by mom and dad, evidently, as they are nowhere to be seen and the second nesting just hatched today. I cleaned out both TRES nestboxes as soon as I discovered the fledging/loss. This afternoon I had the urge, for some reason, to look into the wooden nestbox, the successful Nest A box. And there, on the bare floor of the box, is a single, lone TRES egg. At least I'm assuming it's a TRES egg -- it looks like one. No grass, no feathers, nothing. Just an egg. I put some grasses in there, and put the egg in the middle. I really have no idea how long it's been in there, since I haven't looked in the box since Monday. Will look again tomorrow to see if there's another one. Cher From: Simon [mailto:simon"at"bowecho.com] I have heard many times that swallows can't get out of the box without a ladder on the inside of the box…. Either roughened up with a file, or staple some hardware wire so the babies can climb up and out. Theresa"at"BowEcho.com From: Joe Huber [mailto:hubertrap"at"webtv.net] Hi all, Did you check under the dead bird wings to see if any blow fly larva were attached. this seems the most likely cause of death. There is also a possibility of pesticides being used in the area. Feeding contaminated insects to young. Cold or prolonged wet weather making insects hard to find is another possibility. Joe Huber,Venice Florida. From: Paula [mailto:PaulaZ"at"columbus.rr.com] Carol, Sorry about the babies dying. I am concerned that you state they hatched 20 days ago. The baby should have fledged by now. I would definitely change nests. Even though you risk the baby fledging possibly before his time (although I doubt this is a concern if they hatched 20 days ago), the possibility exists that he might be stuck to the nesting material and cannot fly out. You have dead, rotting carcasses in there and berry goop sounds like. Leaving him in this situation is dangerous so I'd change it out. I would fashion a new nest out of dried grass. Gently pick up the live baby and set him in it. Pull the old nest out and throw it away - replace nest and baby. Let us know if he was stuck. Paula Z Powell (central) Ohio
From: LauraSue14"at"aol.com Hello All, This year I finally have TRES nesting in my yard, bluebirds have nested here for 20 years. All was well on Sunday, July 4th. This morning I noticed no activity around the nest box with 4 nestlings around 13-14 days old. I watched for a couple of hours and finally saw an adult fly in maybe 3 times total in that time and no chirping coming from the box. Finally I decided it was time to really check it out, maybe my timing was off and they had fledged. When I got close to the box I heard a little chirping, opened the box and found 3 dead nestlings and one still alive. I removed the dead ones and watched for another hour or so (after putting a call in to a rehabber near here) and finally the parents came back and resumed feeding the one surviving baby. The 3 dead ones were in different stages of development, from the looks of them between 9 and 14 days old. What in the world happened to them? No damage to them, or bloated stomachs, no other birds harrassing them, no farms nearby that use chemicals (al though a few neighbors might use chemicals on their lawns by the look of them). We are in a primarily forested area with some open areas, not exactly great TRES habitat. What a sad day but at least one might survive, I'll be keeping a close watch on this last one. The rehabber is willing to take it if the parents abandon it in the next couple of days. Laura Marlborough, CT PS - The Blues are on their 3rd nesting with 3 eggs laid as of today :-) From: LauraSue14"at"aol.com :-( Sad to report that the last surviving chick died sometime between dark last night and this morning. The adults were feeding constantly til dark, then no sign of them today. Still no visible trauma, nest was clean of parasites. I had so much hope for them and can't imagine what went wrong. Laura From: Haleya Priest [mailto:mablue"at"gis.net] So sorry! Oddly enough I find Tree Swallows are usually the ones without much complications. I had one nest of TRES this year with all chicks dead - nothing visible as you found. I bet you'll have better luck next time...... H From: rindfleisch12"at"elknet.net Just a quick FYI note to the list... 3 nestboxes of soon to be Tree Swallow fledglings died after sever storms/temperature drop the night of June 23rd in my area. I had checked all boxes prior to the storm’s arrival (Wednesday). Box noise and parental defense indicated all boxes with thriving hatchlings. Upon my return to the area Saturday afternoon, I was greatly shocked and saddened to find 12 hatchlings all dead in 3 of the 5 occupied boxes. No sign of trauma or infestation was evident. I was dumbfounded. In 1 box were 4 eastern bluebirds (12 days old – now fledged) and another with 2 very newly hatched tree swallows. They were OK. I called the neighbor verified that no Round-up application, etc. was the cause. I had met with my vet, I had asked him if he has heard of anyone having the same experience. He confirmed that a friend also lost tree swallows and purple martins following the storm. Apparently the temps. dipped to 38 F., or lower that night. Since then, no 2nd TRES nesting attempts have been made. Except for maybe a couple who fledged prior to the cold snap, I will only have the 2 fledge. Bummer. Last year TRES were 100% hatched & fledged. Cheryl R. SE Wisconsin – Walworth Cty. From: Dick Stauffer [mailto:sapl"at"agt.net] Hello all: I have a question about blowfly. July 6 checked nest box with Tres fledglings about 10-12 days old. 5 were dead & the box was infested with larva ( blowfly I believe). 1 fledgling alive seemed to be in good health. I remove a blowfly larva from its leg. July 7 last fledgling dead. On inspection I found larva under both wings. Question : Can blowfly cause the dead of 6 fledglings? Lat 52 Long 114 Dick Stauffer From: KCBSP"at"aol.com [mailto:KCBSP"at"aol.com] From: Elizabeth Zimmerman [mailto:ezdz"at"charter.net] Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2004 7:38 AM Subject: TRES nestling loss After reading multiple accounts of unexplained tree swallow (TRES) nestling death, I figured I'd better get out and check my two active nests (which I still think might be second broods). I had been away for several weeks and a friend was monitoring. One brood of 4 was fine. The other brood of 4 was reduced to 2 - one missing, one corpse in nest (underneath a live baby.) The corpse already had maggots (VERY gross) and was sort of flattened out, no damage to head that would indicate HOSP. Both of these nestboxes are in a hay field where no pesticides are used, both have predator guards (wobbling PVC baffle with cap on pole), and virtually HOSP in this particular area. No overabundance of blowflies (using Whitworth's guide of 10/bird being a potential problem.) Both were Peterson boxes with entrance hole facing E. The one with all birds alive is in a shadier area, but I don't think it's been all that hot. The two broods hatched within a day of each other (the one with loss was 1 day earlier.) I changed out both nests just in case. This is the ONLY loss I've had on the trail this year (fledging 100+ birds so far.) Very strange, I wonder if there is some disease phenomenon at work, or whether something is affecting late TRES nestings. Last year, TRES were fledged by second or third week of July. These birds hatched around June 5/6. Bet from CT From: Haleya Priest [mailto:mablue"at"gis.net] Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2004 11:21 AM Subject: Re: TRES nestling loss Haleya Priest Amherst MA I think some chicks simply perish and we'll never know what happened. But I do find that when the heat soars, I can have more problems. :-) H From: bookfanaticef-bluebird"at"yahoo.com [mailto:bookfanaticef-bluebird"at"yahoo.com] Hello Everyone! From: JOHN & BARBARA SIBIO [mailto:jsibio"at"comcast.net] Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 7:07 PM Subject: Dead chick I managed to catch a break in the adults' feeding relay this afternoon and opened the nestbox. I saw only four, big, fat fuzzy chicks. Six days ago, the first time I saw them, there were definitely five! They were hunkered down but the one closest to me was peeking from partially opened eyes. I petted his back and he moved, which allowed me to see a small, pale foot beneath him. I reached for it and he jumped up and moved to the other side of the nest; there was a dead chick, beneath the live ones. I got it out and closed the nestbox. It looked to be a few days old, with just the fuzz on its head and shoulders, so it must have died just a couple days after hatching. It looked a little dry, and only had a faint odor. So, the four surviving chicks are being fed by the adult pair and two fledglings from the first nest. They shouldn't go hungry. Barbara in Cloverdale, CA From: Lana Hunt [mailto:lanahunt"at"kcp.uky.edu] Hi Everyone, I have had an eventful bluebird season this year. First, there was a successful fledging of five babies from the front yard box! They even brought the juveniles back for mealworms! Therefore, I installed a nest box behind the near barn and one above the pond. Immediately, bluebirds occupied these! Wow, I was full of p and vinegar, as they say. *If you build it, they will come!* I watched the nest box behind the near barn from about 20 feet from a small lawn chair. They became used to me and came for the mealworms when I whistled. I did not get to witness it, but I feel these four babies fledged successfully. When I went to check on the one above the pond (quite a long steep walk), there were three blue eggs! The next time I got a chance to check on this box, there were two blue eggs and a large fledgling. A week later when I returned, I discovered the nest box on the ground. One nestling was dead (of unknown origin) and two cracked blue eggs. Either a vandal or cow had pulled the mounting pole (four sections) out of the lowest section and the box and pole fell down. In the mean time the second nesting in the front yard was emptied of four blue eggs by what I suspect was a snake. To my surprise, they rebuilt in the same nest box. I immediately moved the nest box from the fence to a mounting pole *though the nest was built* with a guard. This did not seem to bother them as they went ahead and laid four more blue eggs. Mom and Dad kept vigilance and ate mealworms and all seemed right with them. On Thursday one egg had hatched and Friday another. When I return yesterday, the tiny babies were dead. They just appeared to have dried up. I watched for some time and saw no evidence of Mom and Dad in the area. I removed the two dead babies and left the eggs, I'm not sure if this is what I should have done? I cannot figure out what happened. The weather was not as hot as it had been (in the 80 s), there was no indication of predator involvement. There were three small ants on the dead babies? I pulled the nest out and did not see any sign of more and put it back as it was. I don't know if this had anything to do with it or was and after the fact occurrence. There has not been any chemical spraying in the area to my knowledge. There is water nearby in a birdbath or creek. The box did not feel hot inside. This is my first year of experiencing failed nestlings that I am aware of. I do hope they do not abandon this nest box. This makes nine times they have nested there! The Wild Life Habitat Program gave me nine nest boxes built either by fourth graders or by the 4H. They are of thick wood and well built. They do have flat roofs and are only about six inches deep from the entrance hole. With some modifications, I think they would do well. I was all set to make myself a *trail*. There are ample spots available on the farm with the ideal conditions. I have learned my lesson well. I will have no nest boxes without poles and guards. However, I do not know how to deal with these other circumstances? These events have let the air out of my sails and I am now full of doubt and ineptitude. PS. Where does one buy "tangle foot"? From: Torrey [mailto:torrey_canyon"at"yahoo.com] Sent: Monday, August 01, 2005 11:37 AM Subject: Re: catching up Hi Lana, This is not ant predation. Ants would swarm the nestlings & leave nothing but bones. (I am sooooo glad i don't have to deal with fire ants.) The ants you saw were most likely scavengers. If the other eggs didn't hatch, & the young died at a day or 2 old, there was probably something wrong with the clutch. Animals can have birth defects just like people. It's possible that the earlier extreme heat damaged the eggs during the incubation phase. In general, tho, if you find a nest where there's dead nestlings, the eggs are also no longer viable. It would be safe to toss the whole thing. This late in the season, they probably won't renest. But, since they had success earlier, they'll most likely come back next year. (& if your habitat is good, they'll overwinter. A heated bird bath will draw all sorts of winter birds.) Sad things happen, but next year should be better. Torrey Moss From: charlene anchor [mailto:charleneanchor"at"msn.com] Charlene Anchor, Illinois From: jwick"at"tds.net [mailto:jwick"at"tds.net] Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2005 11:30 AM Subject: Re: Losses Count the successes and be proud you helped make a contribution to the bluebird population. I always figure my totals at the end of the season, and inevitably, the fledglings outweigh the losses. That's what keeps me going! Ann Wick, Black Earth, WI From: Keith & Sandy Kridler [mailto:txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net] Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas From: Torrey [mailto:torrey_canyon"at"yahoo.com] Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2006 12:26 PM Subject: Re: dead baby Hi Ruth, I lost several egg-or-just-hatching stage nests due to the recent weather unpleasantness. If they try again in that box, the parents may pull out the dead nestling but will probably just build a new nest floor over the failed eggs. This might not work on Linda's "freshly dead" young (& as much as i like bluebirds, i don't think i'd put a possibly dead one on my tummy), but there is a way to tell if a naked bird is definitely dead. Once the heart stops beating, all the blood pools down, so it'll look like there's a big bruise on whatever side the bird was lying on. I haven't looked at the tiny nestlings as much as the larger ones. I always remove dead young from an active nest -- Depending on the weather, the carcass could just dry out or it could get totally gross. Even discounting predators, that has to create an unhealthy environment. This bad weather actually came at a not-so-bad time. yours, Torrey Torrey Wenger From: Snoopy [mailto:snoopy"at"wmis.net]
Sent: Monday, September 04, 2006 1:06 PM Subject: Re: New and/or Surprising Knowledge I learned that it STILL hurts ones heart to lose a nest full of babies, even after all these years, after losing babies before, and knowing I'll lose babies again, it STILL hurts.....
Even thought I KNOW that it's the "circle of life" and that is how things are suppose to go sometimes, it STILL hurts.
Joy in Michigan
From: Kathleen Arnold [mailto:koscharn"at"cox.net]
Sent: Monday, September 04, 2006 7:09 PM Subject: RE: New and/or Surprising Knowledge My birds reminded me to look at the positive and not dwell on the negative, especially when you can’t do anything about it. I was reminded how harsh nature can be, losing two clutches of eastern bluebird eggs to the excessive heat we had, even in well-designed nestboxes in full shade all day. I lost six baby barn swallows during the same period. But the other thing I learned is that the two baby bluebirds that successfully fledged in the heat, and the lone baby barn swallow that survived out of the two second nestings, were all the more precious to me. A week after the highs “dropped” to “only” 100 deg, the baby swallow came back and tried sitting in the nest begging. His parents weren’t giving in, although they sat nearby keeping an eye on him until he decided to act like a big boy and go get his own food! He really made me smile, as did the young bluebirds in the bird bath. Life goes on! Kate Arnold, Paris, Texas From: DSturm [mailto:daaranch"at"netex.quik.com]
Sent: Sunday, April 15, 2007 4:41 PM Subject: Babies Dead in Nestbox Five or 6 days ago 5 eggs hatched in the only active bluebird nestbox that I can identify here at the farm. We have had a few days of unseasonably cold weather, it getting down into the low 40 and last night into the upper 30's. Three days ago the mama and daddy bluebirds were feeding the babies and I put some mealworms in a plastic container on the ground for them. I could not tell if they took any of the mealworms or not. Yesterday I noticed no activity around the nestbox but did not check the box. This afternoon I checked and found 5 dead babies.
I removed the babies from the nest and cremated them.
Did cold weather account for the deaths or was it possibly something else? Will the bluebirds return to this nestbox and try again or will they search for another nestbox? Would appreciate help from an experienced bluebirder.
From: Torrey [mailto:torrey_canyon"at"yahoo.com] Female Eastern Bluebirds brood their infant hatchlings pretty constantly for about 4 days. Young bluebirds can regulate their own body temperature at about 8 days. The 3 or 4 day window between when the female stops brooding & when the young can keep warm on their own is a very bad time for the weather to be nasty. Cold chicks can't raise their heads to be fed & so they get weaker. Chicks that are younger or older than this have a much better chance to survive bad weather. It sounds like your nest was in that unlucky window. Torrey Wenger From: danhan7"at"sbcglobal.net [mailto:danhan7"at"sbcglobal.net] I had essentially the same experience as DSturm about a week ago with the weather, two nests, and babies about 5 days old. I lost a nest of 5 TUTI babies and a nest with three EABL babies.. Thank you very much, Torrey, for your explanation of what happen. Dan Hanan From: Duane Rice [mailto:drbirdsong4"at"hotmail.com] DSturm, From: Dottie [mailto:yumyumkatts"at"voyager.net]
Sent: Sunday, May 06, 2007 11:15 PM Subject: Dead BB Baby Yesterday when I got home, I gave the BB’s their mealworms since Mr. BB saw me and flew right to the mealworm dish telling me to get cracking. Mom and pop BB starting getting their mealworms right away; however, they didn’t take any worms into the box for the babies but instead flew up to the trees with them so I figured they had fledged their babies before I got home. I found the BB babies did fledge but there was a dead BB baby inside the box. He was full grown and ready to fledge. I don’t have a clue what happened. There were no marks of any kind on him. I know mom and pop wouldn’t have just left him in the box to die. This is sure not shaping up to be a good BB year. Dottie, Hickory Hollow From: Horace Sher [mailto:hjsher1"at"yahoo.com] Hello... Here's the senerio...Baby EABL was alive & well on Thurs. & tried to leave box after its sibling left but wasn't strong enough to fly up to a tree. I actually found it near the box on the ground. I held it in my hand & tried to help it fly away, but it just flew horizontal & fell to the ground about 25-30 feet away. So I went & got it & put it back into the box. So far so good. It stayed ok in the box thru Friday night. From: Linda Tate [mailto:lamccub "at"ilstu.edu] Hi, I'm new here. I just started monitoring a bluebird trail this year and was so excited to get eggs and then 3 of the eggs hatched. When they were around 12 days old I found 2 of them dead inside the nest and the third on the ground dead. (They looked ok) The third one on the ground was a few days younger that the other two. Didn't see the adults anywhere. I read some of the older posts to this list about babies dying, so I guess it happens. I was really disappointed though. What are some of the causes of this other that toxins or the parents dying? The one thing that makes me wonder is that the last two times I checked on them I never did see the female, only the male. Would the male try to keep the babies going for a while even if the female had died? Would he be able to sustain the chicks From: FairfieldDoc6 "at"aol.com [mailto:FairfieldDoc6 "at"aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2007 9:07 PM Subject: Re: BB babies dead Dear Linda,
So sorry to hear of your loss of BB babies. Don't give up! I've been reading a lot of info on this list being new as well and you will hear many ideas of what may have happened. Please let us know ASAP your details as one lister suggested. I think the parents disappeared somehow and the babies in the nest starved to death. No telling what happened to the one outside the nest and how it got there in the first place. It may have died from a toxic food item early on and the parents tried to rid the nest of the dead baby. Then more toxic food? I have been tempted to get my lawn to look like something by putting down Scott's Weed and Feed but am afraid to go anywhere near the nestbox with it.
Dean Manning
Cantonment, FL From: Keith & Sandy Kridler [mailto:txbluebirder "at"sbcglobal.net] Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas Baby bluebirds in the southern states at 12 days old would be just about old enough to sex by the amount of color in the tips of the wing and tail feathers sticking out of the feather sheaths. Nine day old babies would be mostly pin feathers. Neither age group would have enough feathers to keep them warm IF it was really cold in your area and the babies are now too large for the female bluebird to brood or keep warm. Male Bluebirds lack the bare brood patch on their bodies and cannot transfer heat from their body to the babies to keep them from becoming hypothermic. Unless you watch for hours on end it is hard to always be sure which parent birds are coming to the nest. The female could slip in and out in mere seconds. During the day it is pretty common for a disturbance (a human watching or working outside in a yard say) to keep one or both parent birds watching from afar and not coming to the box for up to an hour or longer. Toxins: Again is the nestbox located in your yard or in a field. Have you recently applied fertilizers with weed and feed or fertilizers with "grub" If you see the bluebirds crossing a city street to feed mostly in your neighbors yard and then returning with insects to feed their young then you could ask the neighbors if they are using herbicides or pesticides or fertilizers with these. NORMALLY the adults will be eating some of the same foods they bring to their young. If you live in farm country did any "crop dusting" take place recently? With the difference in age of the baby bluebird under the nestbox and the ones inside I would GUESS that you are writing from an area that has had a prolonged cold or wet period. I am GUESSING that you had more than three eggs originally and one or more babies died between your nestbox checks and the parents removed one or more small young that died very early. Then when about 9 days old another baby died and the parents attempted to remove this larger baby but dropped it as they were flying off with it. (Dead babies from heat or cold don't have blood pumping so any cuts or tears should NOT show running blood at any point on their bodies. IF there is blood or scabs then damage was done before it got hauled out of the box.) Then another cold spell or continued cold and the other two babies got too cold to beg for food and died two or three days later. If only one or two baby birds die in the nest with other young that are alive then the adults normally attempt to remove dead bodies. IF you are in an area of the country that is already getting to the high 80*F range and you have black or dark brown nestboxes with no ventilation then this age group of babies is also susceptible to dying of a heat related problem. IF you are very dry and very hot then sometimes birds are forced to drink or bath in water in driveways or streets where engines expel antifreeze and this is a deadly toxin. If you have an auto repair shop or a do it yourself repairman next door they often have oil or anti freeze filled puddles around them. Five gallon buckets half filled with water are deadly to birds trying to get a drink. As are partial filled straight sided plastic or vinyl water gardens. Metal and Plastic livestock watering tanks can be deadly for birds. Stainless steel chimney flue pipe for wood burning stoves that are not properly screened at the tops will kill adult cavity nesters as they fall down them searching for a place to build their second nest. Even four inch diameter PVC sewer vents pipes coming through roofs will trap and kill birds but only the larger ones or squirrels will plug up your sewer. KK From: lviolett [mailto:lviolett "at"earthlink.net] This seems like a good time to mention again that mealworms are a wonderful Yesterday, for example, I parked across a busy 4-lane street before checking a box in a tiny neighborhood greenbelt. As equipment was being unloaded from the truck, the female flew towards me and hover-flew over the street Linda Violett From: Linda Tate [mailto:lamccub "at"ilstu.edu] Keith, Thanks for all the information. I really appreciate it. I'm in central Illinois. The boxes are located in a Dept. of Natural Resources Area next to a Nature Center. The box is off a trail that is mowed, but I'm pretty sure no pesticides or herbicides are used there or nearby. The nature center is about around 250 yards from the boxes. They have a constant source of water from bird baths. The older babies in the box had about a cm of dark blue feathers coming out of the shafts. The younger one outside the box had long pins but no feathers emerging. And yes, I had 5 eggs to start with. The box is a I just didn't realize this was something to expect and was so disappointed. What do you do with the dead babies and the nest? Thanks again for providing all the information. Linda T. From: Linda Tate [mailto:lamccub "at"ilstu.edu] Thanks, I've already answered some of your questions in a previous e-mail. It is mounted on a thin metal pole, 5 feet off the ground, in a large open area that has a wooded area about 600 feet away and open restored prairie about 600 feet the other direction. I have 12 boxes all are either Peterson or Bluebird box. All the boxes have wire caging around the entrance hole. The boxes are paired 25 ft apart to allow for Tree Swallows in the area. That particular box was taken by the Bluebirds right away and no other birds previously tried to nest in it. The box paired with it has never had anyone try to nest in it. In fact the male was using it as a perching spot. The other paired boxes are all 300 feet from each other. Some of the other boxes have had house sparrows try to nest, had a couple of eggs. Tree swallows had nested in two of the boxes and laid eggs, however a wren made a nest over one of the swallows eggs. The other swallow is still sitting on 4 eggs. No other bluebirds except the ones that died. Is it too late for bluebirds to want to nest in the boxes?? I think next time I check them I'll take my scope and check out what is happening before walking the trail. Thanks again.
|
BEST OF BLUEBIRD_L CLASSIFIEDS HOME | Audubon Society of Omaha | The Bluebird Box | Bluebird FAQs | Search | Contact meAll material was originally posted on the Bluebird_L or Bluebird mailing list, and has been reposted here with slight modifications to make the posts more readable in an HTML format. In cases in which quoted material has been deleted to save space, this is indicated by an ellipsis (...)For more information about Bluebird_L, check out http://www.cit.corn.edu/cit-pubs/email/using-lists/index.htm. If you wish to contact the author of a post, you will need to edit the e-mail address, replacing "at" with the "at" symbol (above the number 2 on your keyboard). (This change was made to discourage spammers.)If you are the author of a posting and would like to see a particular post (or posts) removed from these web pages, please contact me with the web page address, title of post, and date and time of the post(s), and I will remove whatever material you like. If you have a different opinion from one posted here, you need not contact me, as often I will have a different opinion too. The intent is to try and provide both sides to the issues facing bluebirders, and to do so in an impartial and objective manner.If you have problems, encounter broken links (unless they are within an e-mail thread, as I do not maintain those links), or have suggestions on how the site can be improved to make it more useful, please contact the Best of Bluebird-L Classifieds webmaster.Website design by
Chimalis
|
