Expert: Roger Lederer - 6/9/2008

Question
We had 4 baby birds born in a nest built in my son's enclosed raised "fort".  As of this morning, two birds were gone, one was dead in the nest, and one was on the floor dead.  It has been extremely hot the past few days and the fort itself stifling.  Before this, they all seemed to be alive and well.  Is this normal?  Should I remove the dead birds?

Answer
I'm not sure what "normal" is in this situation. There is a very high mortality rate among baby birds and eggs in most situations. It appears that the stifling fort made things so hot that the birds could not cool off. Birds have no sweat glands so they can only pant to cool themselves, but the faster they pant the more energy they use and the hotter they get, so high temperatures are often fatal to baby birds as they were in this case. As far as the birds that were gone, they may have left if they were old enough to do so. You can remove the dead birds.