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I’m very sorry Rich. I hope the female will be able to feed the babies on her own.
Carol
East TennesseeAs they get older and their neck muscles strengthen they will be able to extend, with open beaks, for food at the slightest disturbance to the nestbox. They will be expecting one of the parents with food.
Thank you David.
Carol
East TennesseeIf they are still young you might not have seen the fecal sacs because they eat them. Always seems like there is a lot less activity early on. Probably because they are so small and don’t need as much food to survive, especially in warmer conditions.
Thank you Dave. I did see them remove fecal sacs a couple of times today. I think they are around five days old now, so still quite young.
Carol
East TennesseeI sat on my porch for about an hour this morning from about 9:00 – 10:00. I did see them feeding the babies and removing fecal sacs from the nest box. They weren’t going in and out a lot, though, which is different than I’ve observed with past nestlings. I’m still confused but feel much better knowing the babies are alive.
Carol
East TennesseeThank you Tammy. I watched a little bit after I read your reply, and the female looks in the box and goes in and out. Maybe I’m just missing that they’re bringing food. I have a Ring camera on my back deck, and I looked at it to see if the bluebirds were dive bombing me when I looked in the box. I had heard them but didn’t realize they were dive bombing me until I looked at the camera footage. Now I’m thinking the babies are probably alive. It doesn’t seem like they would dive bomb me if their babies were dead.
I will put some mealworms out in the morning and sit on my porch for a while and watch. If I don’t see the parents taking them to the babies I will open the box again and touch the babies to see if they move. I feed dried mealworms but stop when the babies are born. I have read that dried mealworms aren’t good for babies because they don’t have any water. I will put some out in the morning though so that I can observe more closely. I really hope they’re alive. Thank you for your advice.
Carol
East TennesseeThank you David. I saw the female flying out of the box this morning, so I’m pretty sure she laid a third egg. I think all is well.
Carol
East TennesseeI can attest to the fact that the mealworm feeder shown on this page is great. I bought mine at least five years ago, probably more. It still looks brand new. It definitely keeps the larger birds out.
Carol
East TennesseeThank you Carol. I was looking at the pictures again that I took after the CAWR left showing what I thought were two eggs. They were way back in the corner of the box, which I hadn’t realized before. Then I looked at the picture that I took a couple of days later showing one egg. I kept looking, and the blue that I thought were eggs was still in the corner of the box.
All of the pictures of the blue that I thought were eggs were blurry. I don’t think they were eggs at all, just something in the nest. I guess all my worrying was about nothing.
Carol
East TennesseeI’ve never had HOSP or starlings eat the mealworms. I have bluebirds, Carolina wrens and song sparrows. I saw a yellow throated warbler in the feeder once, but they are rare here and I never saw it again. I think if I saw a HOSP at the feeder I would take it down.
Luckily, I haven’t seen a HOSP or starling at all this year. I only feed high quality seed from Wild Birds Unlimited–safflower and sunflower. Last year I saw a HOSP at my safflower feeder. That’s when I started having problems with them. I took my seed up this spring when breeding season started but do feed mealworms.
Carol
East Tennessee
