I must be out of my ever lovin' MIND!!!

[Rammy]

I hate to say this but you should never touch wild bird eggs with your hands. It leaves your scent and the mother bird will more than likely abandon the nest. Keep an eye on it to make sure she is coming back. Best to go out at night to see if she is sitting on the nest with a flashlight. Just get close enough to shine it on her to see if she is there. I hope things turn out well.

Rammy

 

[Jenifer72]

I always thought if you touched anything in a robins nest that they wouldn't take care of any of them because your scent is on them...is that true or did our parents tell us that so we would leave wild bird nests and baby birds alone?

OH...I just read the post above mine...maybe it is true.

 

[Mervin]

I get two nests under my back porch each spring. I know there are eggs in it b/c mamma throws a fit when I use the basement door. After she flys off, she sits in a nearby maple and cusses me 'til she thinks it's safe again. I'd like to move her, but I was always told not touch the nest or anything in it.

 

[Lolita]

 

[Julie08]

Great story!!!

........... as for the scent thing........... old wives tale

 

[eggsited chickens]

Many years ago, My sister found a baby bird (Sparrow) that had fallen out of the nest. She took care of that bird like it was her pet. She moistened dog food in water mashed it really good and fed that to it. One day she let it go and it would fly back and sit on some of us. After a while it never came back. I'm thinking that someone killed it b/c it would fly at them and scare the cr** out of everyone. It was so cute though, to think that a wild bird would trust a human

 

[Serrin]

Well, either it's an old wives tale, or Momma Robin has a sinus cold because she was still dutifully sitting on her nest last night and again this morning!

I got as close as I dared and can see no eggs under the tree in which she and the nest reside. So, so far, so good. Let's all just keep our fingers crossed for this little girl and her family.

Daddy Robin made an appearance this morning as I made my survey of Momma and the nest (from a distance) and scolded me something severe! I'm glad to see that he's on duty and doing his job.

I still worry that the egg I returned may be further advanced in it's stage of development over the two in the nest. While it would give that chick the advantage for survival, I'd hate to think I caused the demise of the other two.

Sigh. Future note to self: Teach Annie to leave well enough alone when it comes to little wild birdie eggs!

 

[ra]

That's great! What a fun story!

 

[Apomerantz]

Quote:
Most birds' sense of smell is not strong enough to be able to pick up on that. It would be a problem if you were constantly disturbing the nest, she might consider you a threat and ditch the nest, but she can't smell you.

Amy

 

[ChickenCrazed]

Quote:
Actually that is false...When I was a young girl we had a Robin that had fallen from a tree..It still needed it's Momma but it was way too young to be on the ground...My mother & I put the Robin in a shoebox nest we had made in the garage...We would take the Robin outside and put it on the ground for the Momma Robin to feed...She would care for it and then we would put it back in the garage...When we felt the Robin was big enough we left the baby Robin out with it's Momma...I was sad to say "goodbye" but very happy it was with it's Momma.

~Laura