photographing baby birds.. please help! (1 Viewer)

hello guys, is photographing baby birds while they are in the nest safe? my friend is regularly reaching up with his camera phone to a nest and taking photos, i'm just wondering if this may cause the mother to abandon the chicks or anything like that.. i don't think he's using the flash but i still worry a bit! he also mentioned that one of the babies looked mauled in the last photo.

please let me know your thoughts asap, couldn't find anything on google about it. thank you

Hi Jennie, getting close to birds in the nest is really not a great thing to do. It could lead the parent to abandon the nest. Also, a disturbance can cause the baby birds to explode out of the nest before they are ready, which leaves the adults with a lot of work. It's said that when humans approach nests they leave scent trails that can then be followed by nest-predating animals. Nesting birds are vulnerable to so many things -- weather, all kinds of predators, the list goes on. I think it's preferable to keep well away from them at this stage.

thank you so much for the quick response! i will pass on the info

I agree that this should be discouraged. I don't in all honesty think the odds of the parents abandoning the babies is all that high but some species are more sensitive to disturbance than others.

jennie said:

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please let me know your thoughts asap, couldn't find anything on google about it. thank you

Click to expand...

Nothing found? Let me help you:
http://www.birdimages.co.uk/files/documents/BIRDPHOT_tcm5-43180.pdf