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The Case of the Missing Finches (1 Viewer)

moughans

New member
Hello all!

A few weeks ago, a purple finch built her nest in a hanging plant pot on my porch and laid six eggs. Exactly one week ago, the babies hatched. I've been keeping an eye on them from my kitchen window, and as of two days ago, there were five healthy looking little guys in there. Yesterday when I came home from work in the afternoon, they were all gone - the nest is completely empty. I am reasonably sure they were not anywhere near old enough to fly out on their own, so I have a feeling that something horrible happened to them, but there was no evidence of that either - I feel like if a larger bird had gotten them, the plant pot or the nest itself would be disturbed, and there would be some detritus on the porch, maybe even blood or something. But they're just gone - completely gone. The nest looks perfect, the plant pot isn't disturbed, it's like they all just flew away, but two days ago their eyes weren't even open and they definitely didn't have flight feathers. I'm attaching a picture from a few days ago.
Does anyone have any ideas of where they might be/what might have happened to them? Thanks!
 

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They certainly haven't fledged yet. This is just a suggestion, but do you have any neighbors with kids? A cat might be able to kill and minimize blood, those are the only solutions I can think of.
 
My neighbor has kids but they haven't been home for days. There's no way a cat could have gotten up where the nest is. It just seems so weird, like in the morning there was a family of seven (five babies and the two parents) and in the afternoon they were all just gone! It must have been jays or woodpeckers - I mean, there's basically just the one option (something ate them), right? Not like the parents would have moved them somewhere else...?
 
My neighbor has kids but they haven't been home for days. There's no way a cat could have gotten up where the nest is. It just seems so weird, like in the morning there was a family of seven (five babies and the two parents) and in the afternoon they were all just gone! It must have been jays or woodpeckers - I mean, there's basically just the one option (something ate them), right? Not like the parents would have moved them somewhere else...?

Some snakes wil aslo climb bushes to get at nests squirrels too, predation is almost certain it seems.


A
 
A lot of nests end up predated. Snakes, squirrels, raccoons, weasels, other birds, the possibilities are endless. As far as a visible disturbance of the plant goes, even an elephant can slip through thick undergrowth and not leave a trace.
 
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