This is the worst scenerio, the male is uncertain to finish taking care of the nestlings on his own. Your best bet is to find one or more nests with similiar aged nestlings and add one or two of the orphaned nestings to these other nests. But they have to be of near the same age/size, otherwise they will be too young or too old and someone will starve due to competition. Contact someone locally to see if anyone has nests that can accept your orphans.
If you can't find an adoptive nest, try to find a NYS wildlife rehabilitator to take the birds in to be fed by hand.
They need food every 20 minutes or so from dawn to dusk and thats a LOT of work.
As with the above scenerio, the male is unlikely to finish taking care of the brooding on his own.
Your best bet is to find one or more nests with similiar aged eggs and add one or two of the
orphaned eggs to these other nests. But they have to be of near the same age/incubation time, otherwise they will
hatch too soon/late and someone will starve due to competition. Contact someone locally to see if
anyone has nests that can accept your orphans.
Keep an eye on things, the female may still be able to brood the eggs or raise the young on her own,
but it will be difficult without the male to help her. You can help by putting out mealworms
to help her find a constant supply of food to feed her babies. If the female abandons the nest, see
the above information to try to find an adoptive nest.
Nestlings can die for various reasons; prolonged cold, lack of food, severe blowfly infestation, competitor species attack.
If you are having a prolonged cold/wet spell, you can consider putting out mealworms to help the parents
feed the babies. Daily/weekly nest checks from the side of the box can help you deteremine if there are a LOT of blowfly
larvae underneath the nest. If there are, remove the nest and replace it with dried grass clippings.
To help avoid competitor attacks, don't allow house sparrows to nest in your boxes
and try to place your boxes away from trees to discourage wrens. Remove the dead nestlings, if they are
all dead then remove the nest, the bluebirds may renest.
There are many reasons adults may abandon a nest. One or both of the parents call fall victim to predation or die of natural
causes. Once a pair has started building a nest they usually defend it as best they can. Be sure to help them by having predator guards and longer
nestbox roofs. Checking on the progress of the nesting can help you stay in tune with what is going on, but when they disappear
there is no real way to know what happened unless there are clues around the nest or if the nest itself is disturbed. If there is
a second nest on top of the first, then either another pair took over the box or the first set of eggs was infertile and they are trying again.
In either case remove the old nest to reduce the height of the new nest.
House Sparrows are a non-native, unprotected species. They are direct competitor to bluebirds and
can/will kill both adults and nestlings.
The best way to deal with sparrows is to get rid of them. We have in-house trap plans
that you can use to trap the sparrows. The best bet is to get rid of the male, and the female should leave
after that. Start early each spring dealing with them before you have vulnerable baby bluebirds.
If you still need to contact someone, contact one of the
officers, directors, committee chairpersons or your New York State
County coordinator or leave a message on our
message board.