Startled Baby Cardinals (8 Days-Old) Out of Nest (1 Viewer)

Hi, all. New to the forum, but my family lives in the woodlands of Central Pennsylvania, and we are avid backyard birders! It was our joy this last month to have a cardinal pair create a nest just outside our side door, where we could carefully watch from the window. Three eggs successfully hatched, and the babies were 8 days old today.

We've been so careful not to disrupt them, and yet today, as I passed their shrub, I startled the babies apparently and then all three came flapping/hopping out of the nest. I couldn't feel more terrible -- as I know it's too early for the them to fledge. They are hopping nicely, seem fully feathered or fluffy all over at least, and are flapping their wings a bit as they hop.

The mother and father though are terribly upset. Now the babies seem split under two different but nearby shrubs (both low and very dense -- with thick cover for them). The father seems to be trying to locate/round up the one that is separate from the other two, but doesn't seem to be having success. The shrubs are so dense that I can't see the third baby either.

We have no nearby cats and because the shrubs are so near our house, no other likely predators -- but I feel heartbroken that I've doomed them to certain death tonight. I know that intervention is unlikely to do much good -- but I guess I'm just posting to hear your thoughts on the likelihood that baby cardinals might fare well if startled out of the nest at 8 days. ||

Thanks for any insight! Appreciated! And glad to have found this forum.

Hi familyinthewoods and a warm welcome to you from all the Staff and Moderators.

I think they may be OK, as they'd be fledging in the next day or so anyway (well that's if my guess is right and they're Northern Cardinals?). At least the male seems to be trying to get them all together and I'm sure they'll soon sort themselves out.

Don't beat yourself up, these things happen.

You can read more about these lovely birds HERE in our Opus article.