Expert: Roger Lederer - 6/11/2007

Question
I apologize for my long story: A couple of weeks ago, we were delighted to discover a cardinal nest in our backyard on a shrub 10 ft tall. A week ago, after a severe storm (we live in Dallas), we found one of the babies drowned in our pool. However, we subsequently continued to hear another baby thriving in the nest. We very much enjoyed watching the parents care for the survivor baby. Yesterday evening, a neighbor's cat accustomed to visiting our backyard came by: as I drove it away, both the male and female cardinal "helped me" with their usual distressed low flights and chirps. All appeared well afterwards. At midnight, the distressed sounds of the baby cardinal alerted me and I found him on the ground, being intimidated by the cat. The cat fled and I placed the baby bird inside the nest. However, I immediately had second thoughts, as I did not see neither mother nor father and worried that 1) it may be cold for the baby to spend the night alone and 2) the cat might returned. In the next 45 minutes I had almost completed reading online all I could about rescuing the baby from the nest for housing in a secure location (especially regarding feeding) when I again found the cat, this time on the nest. Much to my distress, I could not stop the cat from fleeing with the baby in its mouth. Of course now I feel terrible that I replaced the baby in the nest in the first place, but an additional sorrow is the likelihood that the parents may not reuse the nest. I have spent the day treating the area with critter repellent and provided a safflower feeder, but I wonder if the birds will ever return to this nest. Thank you in advance for all your great advice.

Answer
If the baby you replaced in the nest was fully feathered, it was ready to leave the nest. But the cat would have gotten it anyway. (Cats kill hundreds of millions of birds in the US each year!) If there are no other young in the nest, the parents probably will not return. They might reuse the nest later in the year, but maybe not. Twice a year in the same nest is maximum. Next year they will build a new nest. Did I answer your concerns? Roger Lederer