I live in Boston. I have a mourning dove 3 weeks ago build a nest on my airconditioner. The male and female were a great mom and dad. They took turns sitting on and feeding the baby birds for the past week. I thought there were 3 in there, but when I looked today..only two. The mommy dove was on them all day until about 2 this afternoon when I saw her fly off. She is still not back. The 2 baby birds are up there snuggled together and are breathing. Will the mommy come back? I had a birdfeeder on my deck and she was eating the seed today. I am concerned about the babies, but don’t want to touch them in case she comes back. I don’t know why they would take off all of a sudden. There are not any predators as they are on a 3rd story AC and sheltered by the roof overhang.
Any suggestions or help would be great!
Are these babies feathered out really good? Doves grow very quickly, and once they have a lot odf feathers they are able to stay warmer together longer while the parents are out gather food to feed them. If they are fully feather the one missing one may have already learned how to fly and may be close by since the parents still have the other 2 babies in the nest.
Sapphyre
Certified Avian Specialist
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Keep watch over the nest. If the mother does not return you should be able to either care for them or take them to an animal shelter, where they will find the proper agency to assist in nursing them.
I will add that when I was about ten, I found my cat had stalked, and successfully attacked (and killed) a momma bird. I knew she had only one baby bird left in the nest. I learned how to feed the bird from a medicine dropper. I mixed water with baby rice cereal. A neighbor who was an animal lover and had saved a few birds in her life told me how to do this.
I never thought I could save a life! Well, I did. It was Sooo
neat. Eventually, I taught the baby to eat worms. And the neatest of all was teaching it to fly. It would always return after flying a few laps at the begening. I knew the day would come that it would have to “fly the coop” and it did. I will never forget the way I had a part in helping this creature out! All my friends were also fascinated. (One even bought one as a pet after my experience! )
If the momma abandons the nest, you have a choice to make. Good luck!
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The adults do have to leave to gather food for the chicks, feed themselves etc…so yes it is common for them to be gone for a while. You can watch the nest to see if the adults are coming to feed….but make sure you are not too close to the nest and in an area where the adults cannot see you. Too much disturbance could cause them to abandon. Doves only lay 2 eggs, so there were never 3 chicks. Also, once the chicks are about 5 days old, the adults will stop brooding (sitting on the chicks) during the day..but may still brood at night. They should definitely coming to feed however, so keep your eyes open. If they have truly been abandoned, you should get them to a wildlife rehab in your area….BUT only if you are positive that BOTH parents are absent.
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If mom doesn’t return, it’s possible to hand raise the babies to adulthood and return them to the wild. I’ve done it with 2 mourning doves. You’ll need to visit the pet store and get baby bird powdered food (kaydee is a good brand), a thermometer, and a feeding dropper. Mourning dove baby food must be a certain temperature or the babies can’t digest it. The babies have a crop (food bag) in the front of the chest. You mix the baby bird powdered food with warm water, it should be the consistence of cream of wheat, once the mix is the proper temperture(check to food direction for the proper temp.), put some mix in the dropper, tilt the birds head so the beak is up, open the beak, place the dropper to the back of the mouth, slightly down the throat. The food will go into the crop, you only want the crop to puff out a little then stop feeding. Be sure to clean off any food that flows out of the mouth with a damp cloth as it will dry very crusty otherwise. Don’t feed the bird again until the crop feels empty. Throw away any food you’ve mixed with water but didn’t use.
Once the bird is old enough to walk around add the baby bird powder (without water) to the seeds. The baby will start eating seeds this way, don’t stop the wet feedings until seeds are being successfully consumed.
Kaydee Bird Food has a video showing how the feed a baby bird. Here’s the link to view it:
http://www.kaytee.com/companion_animals/birds/hand_feeding/#video
Keep the birds warm, I used a shoe box with fresh tissue paper after each feeding. You can expect 3-4 feeding per day.
It took a year before my doves left, but they came back every day for breakfast for years and brought their mates and children.
Oh, by the way, doves learn to fly straight up, like a helicopter, before they master flying forward.
Good Luck
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Id wait and see if the mother returns. Watch the babies closely. Birds have a terrible sense of smell, so touching them would not cause the mother to reject them, that is a myth. If you do conclude they are abandoned, get them to a wildlife rehabber in your area, keep them warm on a heating pad and do not try to feed them. Mourning doves have a crop that you need to insert the food directly into, if you try to do this yourself you run the risk of putting the food down the wrong pipe, and puncturing the crop both of which lead to death. Don’t worry about the food until someone who is trained can feed them properly.
Im a wildlife rehabber
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birds have great sense of smell and i know that because i saw a nest with eggs in it and my bff toched a egg and the next day i was walking home from school and there was a egg missing and also there was the egg on the ground
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