Expert: Roger Lederer - 5/30/2008

Question
I live in North Carolina and we had a cardinal who was right outside out front door, and made a nest in a tree. There was just one egg, and the mother was sitting on it for days, and finally flew away, and we have not seen her since. I thinked she was scared away. We are not monitoring it 24 hours a day, however it's obvious she hasn't come back because we never see her. Can we save this egg? Will the bird come back? WE already took the nest and began to incubate the egg with a lamp (kept it in the nest)in an effort to save it. Please advise!

Answer
One egg is not usual so it sounds like she may have abandoned the nest. If you already took the nest, she certainly will not come back. If she actually incubated the egg (sitting on it does not necessarily mean she incubated it), then it is probably no good. If you heated it up with a lamp, it needs to be about 101 degrees, which I doubt the lamp provided consistently. It is probably dead. But you might want to call your local wildlife rehabilitation center for advice.