Babies in an abandoned nest in southeast PA (1 Viewer)

Jade has Stonechat says do not hold, allow the birds to sit on your shoulder or in anyway treat them as a pet because they will get imprinted on you and your husband and from the sound of things it may of already happened, these birds because you are feeding them will think your the parent, and when they fledge you may find it difficult for these birds to leave and spread the wings(pardon the pun)
I can tell you have become very attached to these little birds, id feel the same in your position but you must remember they are WILD Birds.

Thanks
Damian.

Boro Birder said:

Jade has Stonechat says do not hold, allow the birds to sit on your shoulder or in anyway treat them as a pet because they will get imprinted on you and your husband and from the sound of things it may of already happened, these birds because you are feeding them will think your the parent, and when they fledge you may find it difficult for these birds to leave and spread the wings(pardon the pun)
I can tell you have become very attached to these little birds, id feel the same in your position but you must remember they are WILD Birds.

Thanks
Damian.

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Not too much of a problem if you feed them for the rest of their lives and they don't breed, but you have to keep it up. If they have offspring then they won't know how to forage in the wild to feed their chicks and the chicks will also be dependant on your goodwill, so probably not a good idea.
BTW, I think its great what you are doing, all life is worth helping, not just iconic species. This is a steep learning curve for you, but next time you'll be better prepared and know the pitfalls. Don't be disheartened, keep up the good work.

I'm curious, any more pics, now that they are older? I'm still not convinced they are House Sparrows, as they don't generally build nests in hedges. They prefer to nest in cavities, either natural ones or cracks in buildings, etc. I could see them possibly being House Finches, which do often nest in bushes near houses.

I must agree with you, DFF. House Finches is a better possibility than House Sparrow. I was more concerned to keep them alive and self-contained then to ID them again.

I'm sorry to have been so long responding. We lost two of our new ducklings Friday night, and my nerves have been really frayed for the past couple of days.

The baby birds were gone on Saturday morning, not in the nest, anywhere around on the ground. Nothing. There was no sign of any kind of struggle, nothing like broken or bent branches. The seeds I had put in for them didn't seem to have been touched by them or any other bird. The millet showed some signs of nibbling, but it had looked that way for a couple of days. I can't say it was any more nibbled on Saturday morning than it was on Friday.

Since they seemed fine when I last fed them on Friday night, I'm trying to make myself believe they just flew away, especially after going through the duck thing at the same time. I could see one falling out of the nest and being taken away by a predator, but not both.

I don't mean to be depressing, but trying to make myself believe they left of their own accord doesn't mean I actually do believe it. Maybe I'm just still so upset over the ducklings that it's causing me to think the worst about the birdlings. The larger one had been hopping around on branches then going back to the nest in the last couple of days, but I never saw the smaller one get farther than perching on the edge of the nest. Maybe it did the same hopping on the branches and I didn't see it, but that one, at least that one, didn't seem ready to venture out on its own.

I'm going to keep trying to make myself believe they're somewhere around here in a tree or hedge and scoping out places to make their own nests. I know that, every time I see a little brown bird at one of our feeders, I'm going to wonder (and hope) that it's one of them.

Thanks so much to all of you.

Young birds unable to care for themself NEVER make a nest for themself.
All the efforts for nothing.....
:-C