Unsure about fate of baby Carolina wrens (3 Viewers)

[anaapplejax]

Hello,

Forgive me if I've posted this in the wrong area but I am searching for some help from some knowledgeable people. I have a nest of baby Carolina Wrens right outside my door in a bucket. They hatched 6-7 days ago. In the last few days they've looked more lethargic and sleepy than they were the first few days and I haven't seen the parents around. They don't really make noise at all, they just sleep a lot in a pile. Last night was the first night the mother didn't sleep in the nest and I'm starting to get concerned that they have been abandoned. In the first few days, any noise I made at them would cause them to perk up and open their mouths but now they don't really move much when I do that. I just don't know enough about baby bird behavior to know if this is normal for them to be so sleepy (like human babies) or if they should be more lively and chirpy at this point (7 days old). Any help would be so appreciated! If this isn't normal I'd like to get them to a rehabilitator before it is too late.

 

[fugl]

What you've described sounds perfectly normal to me. Most songbird nestlings develop a "fear response" at a certain point, reacting to disturbance by potential predators by cowering on the floor of the nest rather than by gaping blindly for food as they did earlier on before their eyes were open and before they were alert enough in general to distinguish friend from foe. Abandonment at night often occurs at about the same time as the onset of the fear reaction, correlating with the development of sufficient feathering for the youngsters to make it through to the morning without a parent to keep them warm.

 

[Frosty II]

About two months ago, a pair of Carolina Wrens nested on my balcony in an old flower pot. They were there for four weeks or so. The chicks hatched, and everything seemed peachy keen until a week after hatching the chicks vanished without a trace and I never saw the parents again. All that was left were two eggs which never hatched. It was quite odd. Are certain birds species capable of relocating their chicks to another area? I fear that a predator got to them, but it's just so unusual that two eggs remained and no sign of predatory disturbance.

 

[fugl]

Sounds like a predator got the chicks; a week is not long enough for them to have fledged and the parents would not have moved them somewhere else--songbirds just don't do that. A shame, but it happens. The eggs may have been infertile and not have hatched for that reason.

But it's impossible to be sure about any of this and other scenarios are possible.