Expert: Roger Lederer - 5/24/2009

Question
I had a pair of House Finchs choose my Direct TV Dish on my apartment
balcony  that they had a brood of 4 eggs, with 3 chicks hatching (I could be
wrong, I"ll explain below), that hatched a few weeks ago, grew to have
feathers in the last week, and now everyone is gone this morning. I've been
watching them for the last 2 moths I believe. When I first noticed them nest
building I left them alone, and about a week later I saw that they had a couple
eggs, but I didn't touch anything to count how many eggs. A few weeks ago
the eggs hatched and there were 3 chicks which turned from white down to
black/greyish chicks with wings in the last week. I noticed in the last 2 days
the chicks who largely ignored me  since I never came close to them lest I
disturb them, were increasingly moving away or concious of my presence.   
  Today I went out to the nest and mom and dad are gone, which is noticeable
since there is no longer them singing. The nest is empty except for a single
egg, which may be original, it may be new, but it's in the nest with some
dropping marks on it.
  My question is, are they gone now? Will they return to the nest aka as a
home, or once everyone's out of the nest everyone moves on to greener
pastures? I'm familiar from growwing up that ducks typically keep returning to
the same nest, and in many ways treat it as a "home" where the young and
parents live near over a growing year. For example there was a family of
ducks that over 3-5 year period would nest, hatch a family, they'd all grow
up, migrate south, then the next year 2 would become 3-5 birds, which
would have their batch for that year, and increasingly more and more ducks
would return each migration till there were 10-15 birds ( I lived next to a wild
life preserve on a river with a wild floodplain in the backyard, lots of land and
animals.)
   I've read online that the parents may return and have multiple batches in
the same location, and enjoyed having them around. Will they return or are
they gone for the year? Would a bird feeder make that possible or increase
their return? If you can give me any insight into their behavior post birthing
and nesting period, or just any general advice or information about these
birds that'd be great.

  Also I did take pictures if you're interested over the last few weeks, only
used the flash once at night but that was about a week or so ago and they
never seemed to be distrubed by it. Most pictures were during the daytime,
mainly of Mom and Dad dancing and signing on the balcony.

Answer
Hi. House Finches typically lay 4-5 eggs which are incubated for about 12-14 days. After the young hatch, they remain in the nest for another 10-12 days. As you noticed, the young birds develop a sense of fear after about five days of age. When they leave the nest, they are unable to fly, so the parents feed them on the ground until they can. So everyone leaves the nest and will not return. However, should the parents decide to raise another brood the same season, they may use the same nest. A bird feeder will not attract them as finches eat very few seeds in the spring and summer. While they are raising young, they need protein and seeds don't provide much; so the birds eat insects instead. In the winter when they need energy and fat, they are attracted to bird feeders.
The egg that is left in the nest is probably infertile.You can remove it. By the way, touching the nest, eggs, or young with your bare hands will not cause the parents to abandon the nest - that's an old wive's tale. But disturbing the nest too much will.
Hope that addresses your questions.