Expert: Roger Lederer - 5/9/2007

Question
I had a cardinal nest in my backyard and have watched the process between eggs and babies. Last night I even took a picture of the nest with 2 babies lifing their heads and opening their mouths. We had a big rain come through and went to check on the nest and the babies were gone. The nest is intact, no branches broken on the tree, it doesn't look like anything disturbed them. Do cardinals move their babies? Maybe because I was looking at them (I never touched it) and maybe because of the rain, they were moved? I just hate to think something got them. They were so tiny. Please advise.

Answer
Cardinals do not move their babies, so something happened to them. They may have been knocked out of the nest by the rain and a predator (cat, dog, rat, whatever) got to them. It is unlikely you had anything to do with it. Cardinals will not abandon their nest if you occasionally look at it. It's a myth that they will abandon eggs or young if you touch them. I have handled thousands of eggs and baby birds without any bad effects on the birds. If you disturb them frequently, it is possible, but that is not the case here. Just sounds like nature in action, unfortunate as that may be. Roger Lederer at Ornithology.com