How can I save baby birds from being flushed down the downspout?

July 24, 2005 7:31 PM

What's the worst place to build your nest and lay your eggs? Above a downspout seems to me a pretty bad choice.

This morning, I noticed that a mourning dove had built her nest and laid her eggs in one of our rain gutters, directly above a downspout.

Here's the photo.

My concern, of course, is that any strong rain will either wash the eggs down the spout, or flood the nest.

Is there anything I can do to help? I'm a firm believer in letting nature be and understand that embryonic birds die all the time, but I wish there was something I could do to at least help.

MeFi birders? Help!

posted by baltimore to science & nature (15 comments total)

Not a birder, but yes i have seen birds nest in gutters before, doves seem to be especially prone to this sort of stupidity. I understand your desire to rescue the nest but I don't think moving it will improve the chances of the young. Can you divert the flow of the water?

(Keep in mind you're messing with natural selection of course, so unless the majority of stupidly built nests are going to get rescued by humans in some way or other, you're increasing the stupid-nest-builder population. On the other hand, there's a good chance the entire dove population is of the stupid-nest-builder type.)
posted by fvw at 7:41 PM on July 24, 2005

You could always block the gutters upstream of the downspout. You'd end up with the gutters flooding and dripping water all along the length, but depending on what's below them that might be fine.
posted by true at 7:41 PM on July 24, 2005

Yes, fvw, I agree and realize that I'd be meddling. But it's hard to be clinical when the eggs are just 5 feet from my desk.

I was thinking I could rig a tarp, hanging it off the twisty metal things that, I assume, are designed to break up ice dams, but then I worry that the temps underneath would get too high in direct sunlight.

Then again, the dove may be smarter than I, and the placement of the nest over the downspout - assuming it holds - is actually good design, allowing the water to flow past.

Who knows? According to teh intarweb, I've got about 2 weeks to fret over this until the l'il critters hatch.
posted by baltimore at 8:10 PM on July 24, 2005

let darwin do his work.
posted by b1tr0t at 8:38 PM on July 24, 2005

Interesting, I was wondering about this too. Currently there are baby birds in a hanging plant outside my parent's front door. Whenever anyone opens the door, the mom flies away. Also, an osprey made a nest near the football field of a local high school. What's with these birds?

As for saving them, I wouldn't move the nest. I guess my parents tried this with a different nest in an inconvenient spot and the mom had a lot of trouble finding it.
posted by jetskiaccidents at 8:49 PM on July 24, 2005

Even if you diverted the flow from the gutter itself, the rain that slid from the roof directly above the nest would still probably wash away the eggs.

This is just a theory, but unless you hopped onto your roof, diverted the flow of water that was directly above the nest, AND diverted the gutter flow, the nest is doomed. IMHO, it's more trouble than it's worth because of the potential damage caused by diverting the flow on the roof (setting up any sort of barricade would require you to put nails or heavy, sticky tape onto your shingles).

As much as I hate to admit this, let it go. She'll know better for next time and "thank you" for it by producing a more suitable nest.
posted by SeizeTheDay at 9:02 PM on July 24, 2005

I don't think there's anything you can do. Anything you do to the gutters or downspout may cause her to abandon the nest. They'll probably be okay.
posted by Mom at 9:05 PM on July 24, 2005

jetskiaccidents: There was a family of birds that came back to a hanging plant on my parents' back porch every year for at least five or six years. That mother bird flew away any time someone opened the door too, but I guess they must have been happy since they kept coming back. My mom was just careful when she watered.
posted by leapingsheep at 9:07 PM on July 24, 2005

Inside a closed gas grill is the worst I have witnessed.

The little ones would slip in the main smoke vent and line the entire grill with twigs and other highly flammable debris. This was during the winter, so once the weather was calm/nice enough to attempt a grill, we surprised the birds and vice versa. Luckily, they had not deposited eggs there, so the only downside was the smoked twig taste everything had until we had fully burned off the remnants of the nest.
posted by blueneurosis at 10:38 PM on July 24, 2005

Okay: update.

Overnight, a vicious thunderstorm rolled through. "Well, that's that," I thought.

But apparently, this gal is the mourning dove equivalent of a structural engineer, because the nest is still there and she's sitting on top of it, soaked but otherwise intact.

Can't see the eggs, as she's sitting aop where they were/are.
posted by baltimore at 4:50 AM on July 25, 2005

Uh, that's sitting "atop."

*grumble*
posted by baltimore at 4:51 AM on July 25, 2005

Good news! I suppose it does save on the effort involved with cleaning the nest. I wonder if she stayed on the nest during the rain? If she didn't I'd imagine it didn't do the eggs a lot of good.
posted by fvw at 5:24 AM on July 25, 2005

This exact same thing happened to me. Mourning dove, nest, gutter, directly over downspout. I called a friend of ours who's a birder and he said just leave it alone and let neature run its course. For extra points, is it on the north side of your house?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 7:18 AM on July 25, 2005

It's on the southern side, Zen.

So? Did the nest survive?
posted by baltimore at 8:14 AM on July 25, 2005

Um, I dunno. This happened last year, and I never went back to check. *sulks away*
posted by ZenMasterThis at 10:35 AM on July 25, 2005