How did the birds get there?

May 31, 2007 9:19 AM

How are dead baby birds showing up in parts of my yard with no trees?

I have a yard with a lot of foliage, so finding dead baby birds that have fallen out of their nests comes with the territory. What I can't figure out is how 3 of them this year have ended up on my pool deck, at least 20 feet from the nearest tree. They were far too young to be able to fly, and there weren't wounds on their bodies that would indicate a predator carried them there. It wasn't particularly windy the days before I found them, and my yard is quite sheltered anyway. I'm stumped.

posted by TungstenChef to pets & animals (13 comments total)

Do you, or your neighbors have a cat? Methinks a feline admirer is bringing you gifts.
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 9:30 AM on May 31, 2007

Here's a possible scenario:

1) Poor baby bird falls out of tree.

2) Fall is enough to critically wound the baby brid, but not kill it.

3) Baby bird tries crawling away from the site of fall, but, being half blind and nearly dead, just manages to get to the pool deck.

Maybe the wood of the deck looks like the tree/nest to them, and that is the stimulus causing them to crawl in that direction?
posted by i less than three nsima at 9:31 AM on May 31, 2007

None of my immediate neighbors have cats, and we haven't seen any strays since moving into this neighborhood. Only thing even close to predatory we've seen in the back yard is a raccoon. Do cats handle their "presents" gently enough that there wouldn't be visible bite marks?

About them crawling, these poor little guys were really young, less than a week old. I've hand raised baby cockatiels, and at that state their motor skills were quite limited.

Thanks for the ideas, keep em coming.
posted by TungstenChef at 9:38 AM on May 31, 2007

CATS

It's baby bird time of year, which around our home (with four cats) is also known as the time of year that dead baby birds show up in parts of our yard with no trees.
posted by jdroth at 9:52 AM on May 31, 2007

Trees are not the only place that birds nest though. I remember, when I was young, my grandparents had a fire pit in their back yard. It was old and had some pretty big cracks in it. Some quail got in the pit and nested. We found out about this after the birds hatched and could not get out of the fire pit. Long story short, my grandfather created a 'bird'-walk and eventually they used it to get out.

Anyways, you might want to look for other places that these guys may be nesting.
posted by dnthomps at 10:10 AM on May 31, 2007

Are you sure there aren't any neighbourhood cats that have a crush on you?

Cats can handle "gifts" with the utmost care, so there doesn't have to be marks at all.

One of my three found a nest last year and proceeded to bring home the chicks, one a day, until they were all gone.
Sadly belling him didn't help, the chicks were too young to get away from him even though they must have heard him coming. :'(
posted by esilenna at 10:31 AM on May 31, 2007

Yes cats can leave nothing but lip marks on whatever they choose, especially if the prey isn't putting up a fight. The cat breathes in the bird's face, it has a heart attack, the cat bats it a few times then figures it's done it's job and brings it to you. Kittens and hungry cats do the maulings, and you may not have those around. Raccoons would eat the birds, so it's not them. I would put money on a very self-satisfied feline somewhere in a 5 house radius.
posted by dness2 at 10:32 AM on May 31, 2007

My father woke up one morning recently to find a little brown house mouse "sleeping" in my cat's food bowl. It didn't look to have any injuries, although I'm sure he just dumped the whole bowl, rather than inspecting it for kitty bite marks. So yes, cats are capable of killing something "gently".

Also, our older cat occasionally brought us presents to the back door. I'm thirding the cat guess, but I really have no idea what to tell you if there are no cats around.

Do you guys usually use your deck entrance as your main entrance? We used our back door as our main in/out route, and that's where all of the offerings from the cat ended up.
posted by AlisonM at 10:37 AM on May 31, 2007

Probably a dumb suggestion but is it all windy in your back yard?
posted by missmagenta at 10:47 AM on May 31, 2007

Are there any groups of crows (what are they called, rookeries?) or maybe jays or other large birds with gruesome diets who live in the neigborhood?

When I lived in a house with some crows around, they occasionally dropped dead baby birds (or, um, parts of baby birds) on the sidewalk near where they perched.
posted by Wavelet at 1:52 PM on May 31, 2007

I think Wavelet solved the mystery, we have some large black birds (big as full grown cats) that hang around and I think they're common ravens. We've witnessed them being territorial towards other birds so I could imagine them attacking nests. Thanks to everyone to replied!
posted by TungstenChef at 2:51 PM on May 31, 2007

A murder of crows.
posted by ersatzkat at 6:42 PM on May 31, 2007

...no, really.
posted by ersatzkat at 6:43 PM on May 31, 2007