Occasionally, when we find ourselves near the nest, we try to peek in and see if everything is ok. I was near the fenced-in nest area yesterday when I saw what looked like a dead baby bird in the nest. Just one. What had happened??
First, I was mistaken: the chick wasn’t dead, just quietly lying where it had either fallen or been pushed out of the now-crowded nest. I just had a weird vantage point. Phew! But there was no real way for the parents to pick the chick up (out of a grassy hole) and put it back in the nest. No worries, we could help.
As loath as I was to disturb the nesting area, I knew the parents had seen us numerous times a day, so I was less worried about them abandoning the nestlings. My arms are just a bit too short to reach the chick from the top of the wire surrounding the nest area, so Mr.fMf reached down and gently put the bird back in the nest. And then realized his arm was stuck in the wire.
After we extricated his arm from the fencing, we left the area so that the parents (anxiously watching nearby) would return to the nest. They did, and we hope that none of the chicks falls out again because there are always predators lurking around. But, to make sure they’re still doing well, we’ll be checking on them more often.