Expert: Roger Lederer - 7/16/2011

Question
Roger there is a bird nest in my yard with these little brown birds. My question is can a first time mom not know or forget to give there babies water? I ask because this bird hatched her 4 babies and it has been very warm here. I just looked at the nest and all the babies are dead and look dehydrated. I looked at them about 2 days ago and they were healthy as can be. I don't know if this makes a difference but I think she was a single mom. I never seen another bird like a dad ever helping her in anyway from the very beginning.

Answer
Parent birds do not give their young water. (There are a couple exceptions, but not in North America.) Baby birds get their water from the food they eat. Depending on the bird, sometimes one parent does all the parenting and in other cases both do. I don't know the cause of their death. Maybe the parent died or got killed. How often did you examine the nest? If the nest is disturbed too often, the parents might abandon the nest. Once a day is more than enough if you do it in the future.