Hi all! I'm new to the site. I'm prompted to post because I'm sad about my backyard birds.
I put up 2 homemade nest boxes in my backyard (one PVC design, one standard box with a flip up side). They are about 10 ft apart, and have been occupied by house wrens all season. I noticed a couple months ago the birds in the standard box seemed to abandon it and move to the PVC one, but still chase other birds away from the standard box that they don't seem to use anymore. They had it filled with a nest, but I didn't notice if they had any young.
Today, I could hear chirps from the PVC nestbox, so I checked it out and there are a few happy babies in there! So, I inspected the square box and was saddened to see there are 3 teeny dead babies in there, that look like they've been that way for a while.
I'm trying to figure out if there was something we did that caused the wrens to abandon their babies in this box and move to the other. Around the time I noticed the birds leave that box, we were building a backyard playground next to it. We left the box alone, but were close to it much of the day. Would our activity prompt wrens to abandon their babies?
It also looks as if one of the babies wriggled out of the nest and fell down one side and got stuck between the flip-up side of the house. If one baby died and was decomposing in there, would they leave the living ones behind? I know there are things about nature I cannot know, but I'd like to prevent this happening again, if possible. I already plan to modify that flip-up door, so it can't pop open on its own because the nest is growing so large.
I know we have violent house sparrows that have been after that box, but it has an opening too small for them to get into. The babies don't look ravaged, they just look like they starved or dehydrated.
Thanks for your input!
I put up 2 homemade nest boxes in my backyard (one PVC design, one standard box with a flip up side). They are about 10 ft apart, and have been occupied by house wrens all season. I noticed a couple months ago the birds in the standard box seemed to abandon it and move to the PVC one, but still chase other birds away from the standard box that they don't seem to use anymore. They had it filled with a nest, but I didn't notice if they had any young.
Today, I could hear chirps from the PVC nestbox, so I checked it out and there are a few happy babies in there! So, I inspected the square box and was saddened to see there are 3 teeny dead babies in there, that look like they've been that way for a while.
I'm trying to figure out if there was something we did that caused the wrens to abandon their babies in this box and move to the other. Around the time I noticed the birds leave that box, we were building a backyard playground next to it. We left the box alone, but were close to it much of the day. Would our activity prompt wrens to abandon their babies?
It also looks as if one of the babies wriggled out of the nest and fell down one side and got stuck between the flip-up side of the house. If one baby died and was decomposing in there, would they leave the living ones behind? I know there are things about nature I cannot know, but I'd like to prevent this happening again, if possible. I already plan to modify that flip-up door, so it can't pop open on its own because the nest is growing so large.
I know we have violent house sparrows that have been after that box, but it has an opening too small for them to get into. The babies don't look ravaged, they just look like they starved or dehydrated.
Thanks for your input!