Expert: Miguel Rodriguez - 6/6/2008

Question
We had a pair of morning doves nesting on our front porch right next to our main door.  They nested on a metal planter stand.
Two eggs were laid and the chicks hatched.

A few days after the chicks hatched the nest, chicks and parents just vanished.
There was not any sign of a disturbance in the area of the nest.
Is it possible that the parents moved the nest and chicks to a tree.  I think that they did but my wife cannot imagine this.

thanks for any reply.

george

Answer
I've never heard that any, of the more than 9000 living species of birds, are able to move altricial chicks from one spot to the other. The safest bet is that some predator snatched them, most probably a predatory bird, because a mammal that climbed its way up, must've broken the nest, while a flying animal may have comited the "chicknapping" whithout even landing.