Dead baby blackbird

[WendyS]

Have just found a dead baby blackbird in my vegetable patch. It was not injured or mutilated in any way and I suspect it was one of the family of four babies which has been regularly feeding in our garden for the past fortnight Any idea what could have caused its death?

We have plenty of drinking water in the garden and the bird table is topped up with a variety of foods several times a day so it wasn't starvation.

[burnhal]

Any number of diseases, congenital defects, just plain inexperience, something stupid like flying into a post, branch etc.

[SaxyJag]

I could even have just fallen out of the nest and been killed on impact.

Try not to worry about it, Wendy. It's nature's way of ensuring the survival of the species - only the strongest survive and the population remains at a viable size.