Ask Lafeber

About house finches (bird)

There is an open nest above my side door, the bird had four babies, yesterday I found one of the babies on the ground, it’s eyes where open but it wasn’t moving, I checked to see if he/she was stiff or cold an it wasn’t, I read to put the baby back in the nest so I did an it hasn’t moved since I found it yesterday around 1130am, the mother an other babies took flight this morning around 730am an haven’t been back, my question is what do I do with the dead baby bird? 😢

Hi,

When you find a chick that has died, you can place it under a bush in your yard somewhere, unless you choose to bury it. A dead chick does not need to be returned to the nest. It sounds like this one died and the parents probably tossed it out of the nest. If you remove the dead chick, you can leave the nest there and see if the family returns. But if they all flew, then they probably will not return.

Take care,

Brenda