baby birds

[babalicious]

my mum has had 5 little blackbirds hatch in a nest in her back yard (about 5 week ago), mummy and daddy blackbird are still feeding them but today all 5 fell out the nest and are hopping around the backyard and they keep going into the drain asif a nest and mum and dad feed them in there, so we were just wondering if she could put them back up in the nest or should we just leave well alnoe? any info would be grate i.e when will they be old enough to fly away etc?

[Deenie]

This happened to me last year.

The best thing to do is leave them be. Blackbirds are unusual in that they push the young out of the nest before they are old enough to fly. They learn to fly from the ground up.

Mum and Dad will continue to feed them while they are on the ground. They will find a secluded, sheltered place (like the drain), and you will see the babies come out now and then and flutter about as if trying to fly.

By all means keep an eye on them (keeping cats out of the garden is probably the kindest thing you can do), but otherwise let nature take its course! And have fun watching them, they really are cute aren't they?

[sddsddean]

We had a blackbirds nest in our honeysuckle this year and the chicks left last weekend and the garden is currently 'alive' with young starlings(bl**dy row!). Perhaps yours were second brood 10CSt.