Expert: Miguel Rodriguez - 6/1/2009

Question
QUESTION: A bird has made a nest in our newspaper box, and there are 5 blue eggs in it.  Today I found a dead bird in the road about 10 feet from the nest, so I figure it's the mother.  No other birds are flying around warningly. I read your responses to other questions about other breeds. I don't know what this breed is (robin?), but would the advice be universal regarding not helping to hatch or feed these eggs?

ANSWER: If you could get a picture of the dead bird, then we could see if the type of egg matches, just to make sure if it's prudent or not to attempt to incubate them.

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QUESTION: I wish I'd thought of that before the bird's body disappeared. I don't know if a neighbor cleaned it up, or if it was taken off by another animal. There are lots of birds in our neighborhood, but I still don't see any guarding the nest warningly, so I still assume it was the mother. Don't birds ever take over another litter as other animals do sometimes?

Answer
The only birds that I know that may brood un-related eggs are those which are either tricked into it (by someone putting the egg into the other's nest), or those like the ostrich, which broods the eggs of several females at the same time, even though one of them may have been impregnated by another male.