Help! Baby Blue Tit out the nest. (1 Viewer)

[Queen Canute]

Good morning,

Got up this morning to find a very small baby Blue Tit on the lawn, I think he's 13 days old and mum and dad are doing a grand job of feeding him.

The trouble is, there is no way he is big enough to fly and next door have cats!!!

I phoned our local bird sanctuary for advice and they said to put him back in if I could and failing that, put him in a hanging basket with a tea-towel. Well, I tried to put him back in but he turned round and jumped back out again.... at this point, I heard no noise from the box either, have they all jumped out? Are they all dead in there? So I put him in the hanging basket as recommended but the little beast is sitting right on the edge, getting caught by the wind every now and then scaring me to death!!! Mum and dad are still feeding him with gusto, but I wondered, should I know move him to a bigger container? A plastic box with higher sides?

Very sad to see the adults now not interested in the box at all, I have had a good look for more babies but cant find any.

Any advice please? Thank you.

 

[Queen Canute]

He jumped out the hanging basket so we put him in this plastic crate, parents still feeding him up 'till dusk. I put the t-towel over him as I'm concerned he might get cold. The other idea I had was to put a heated pad under the box (the type used for bringing seedlings on in the greenhouse). Anyone think this is a good idea or is he big enough to keep warm by himself?

Thanks.

 

[Queen Canute]

OK me again, phoned Brent Lodge again after seeing a neighbours cat literally climbing through the trellis where the makeshift nest box was and they suggested putting him back in the original nest box.
So we opened it up and found 4 dead babies of varying size the biggest one looked like it was still breathing until we realised it was full of maggots!!!!! We hooked the bodies out (and gave them a decent burial) used a small amount of nesting material and a bit of fresh moss from the lawn and popped the little chap back in.
The plastic box is underneath the original so if he does try to jump, he wont fall far but to be honest, we took most of the nesting material out so he has to jump further to the hole.
My fingers are crossed and I am NOT going back out there tonight, I think we have done all we can, I will look in tomorrow at 6am when I get up for work.
Really quite sad that the nest hasn't done well, I was hoping he might have been the runt and the rest had fledged this morning but that doesn't now look likely.

 

[Queen Canute]

Well, that's that. All dead, box removed. Won't be doing that again. Wish I'd brought the little chap in last night now. Perhaps back gardens aren't the place to raise wild birds. Sadly, the parents did look in the box this morning but have gone now.

 

[mary99]

I'm sorry this nest wasn't sucessful, it is obviously distressing.

I have a camera nest box that last year had a brood of BT that was completely sucessful, this year, a complete disaster. I am hopeful next year will be better.

Sorry again it didn't go better,
Mary