Hi all,
In the last couple of months I've had a pair of Welcome Swallows nesting on a light above the front door. They had four chicks but sadly just one week before fledging a butcherbird came and took two of them. One week later the two remaining swallows fledged, it was really lovely to watch them as the parents taught them how to dodge trees and how to catch insects. The babys came back to the nest every night.The second afternoon they were both back in the nest. While they were sitting there a butcherbird flew through and gave them a big scare, they both darted out of The nest, sadly one of them hit a window and died. the next evening I was watching them as the baby hopped into the nest when a second little one flew in to the nest and was fed by the parents. I am positive that there were no other babys in the nest so I am wondering if anyone had any idea what was going on? I was thinking that maybe they had adopted another baby from a different nest? Any help would be very appreciated
Elsie
Could it be that the window hitter was only stunned? (I guess you could hardly check his pulse).
Did you bury him perhaps and he dug himself out when he came to?
I read your post a few times. Two questions:
Did you pick up the dead chick and it was definitely dead?
Could you actually see there was no other chick in the nest? Most of the time there is a smaller one still in the nest, that hadn’t fledged yet.
M-L
Thank you for replying
I was watching the chick when it hit the window and I believe that it brock its neck. It fell on its back and jerked around while the parents flew around it. It spasmed for about 3 minutes with the parents trying to turn it right side up, after a while it stopped moving and the parents stopped coming to it. I went out to check if it was alive and it was definately dead
It's little feet were all curled up and its eyes were open. Also it wasn't breathing. I left it where it was for the rest of the afternoon but then the ants got to it
On the day that the chicks fledged I got a mirror and checked to see if there were any more in the nest as the parents hadn't been back in some hours. the nest was empty. I have never heard of swallows adopting other chicks so I wondered if someone more experienced had ever heard of anything like that happening? Last year they succesfully raised three chicks and I think that at least one pair are nesting at a neighbors house.
Here is a photo that shows the nest. This is of last years babys.