What to do if a nest is blown from a tree

My friend Jayme has allowed me to share these photographs and instructions with you.

Recently, while trimming bushes in her yard, she accidentally tore a down a bush that held a robin's nest! Can you tell in the picture below that she is holding the nest with three little fledglings in her hand? Two of the baby birds are easy to spot, because their beaks are open, but look carefully, or click on the picture to enlarge it and see if you can find the third one . . . He's pretty well hidden, isn't he?

Jayme called the experts at the Department of Natural Resources who told her that the safest thing to do in a situation like this, is to relocate the nest as closely as possible to the spot from which it fell. This is a time for adults to help! They will probably use a ladder to place the nest and the baby birds up in a tree and tie it securely with something like Jayme used, a zip-tie. What a great idea!

When I searched for more information for you, I discovered that an adult should try to place the nest at a joint, between two branches.



There are other suggestions in case the nest was somehow destroyed, or you happen to find a baby bird and you can't locate his nest. I have links below for those. Do not climb a tree to put a baby bird back! Ask an adult for help! Look at the sweet little, contented fledglings! Sound asleep. Their Mother Bird found them in just a few minutes, and they are happily snuggled into their nest in it's new tree.

nestling: noun A bird too young to leave its nest.

fledgling: noun A young bird that has recently acquired its flight feathers.

nest: noun A container or shelter made by a bird out of twigs, grass, or other material to hold its eggs and young.

As defined by The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language.

Nan Pipestem Wildlife Rehabilitation Center

Wild for Life

Thank you Jayme! You have shared such wonderful pictures with us!

Robin Red Breast Nesting Video

Robins - 4 Eggs, 4 Weeks from Fred Margulies on Vimeo.

My friend found this video, and shared it with me, so I could share it with you! Wasn't that kind of her? Don't be sad when the baby birds leave the nest! They stay with their parents until they are adults, just like people do!

Swallow Nest

The bird perched in the Sycamore tree is the Momma bird. She stayed pretty close while I took photos. I'm pretty certain that this is a Swallow Nest. It is built near the roof line of a two story home in the country, very near a river in Central California*.


*On the Stanislaus River in Stanislaus County

Bird Nest with Eggs, and Hatchlings

These are pictures of the same nest! The picture with eggs was taken on Easter, and the picture of the new hatchlings was taken only a week later. Unfortunately, I didn't get back to see the baby birds again before they left the nest, so I can't identify them. Still it's pretty neat to have the photos!

The photos were taken at my brother and sister-in-law's house. Birds make a nest in this planter on their front porch every year. I am very jealous!

Cliff Swallow Nests

Do you see what looks like holes in the side of this cliff? They really aren't holes, but they are birds' nests built from mud! These nests were built by Cliff Swallows. Click on the pictures for a full screen view.

Here is some information that I found just for you about Cliff Swallows!

There are four very important things to consider if you happen to be a Cliff Swallow looking for a place to build your nest.

(1) an open habitat for foraging,

(2) a suitable surface for nest attachment beneath an overhang or ledge,

(3) a supply of mud of the proper consistency for nest building, and

(4) a body of fresh water for drinking. {Thank you UC Davis for this information}

Swallows kind of like to return to the same nest year after year, not always, but often. I think that's pretty interesting. Don't you?

Swallows feed on insects and spend a large part of each day in the air catching flies, beetles, and mosquitoes. Their long, pointed wings give them great speed and maneuverability.

Cliff swallows build mud nests attached to cliffs, bridges, buildings and other structures. This is particularly true of the cliff swallow—the swallow of San Juan Capistrano—which nests in large colonies of up to several hundred pairs. {UC Davis}

I wish I could have managed to get closer to take better pictures, but the river is really quite wide right here. I did find a site with wonderful pictures and even a little video that I'm sure you will enjoy. Look at The Birder's Report for more information.

More Bird Nests

Birds build their nests out of anything that they find handy. This nest (above) is built mainly of twigs and mud, but look at the fishing line! The orange thing is an oak gall. This particular nest was built in an oak tree alongside a river where fishing is a popular sport, which explains the fishing line.

The nest above was too high in the tree for me to get a better picture, but I can tell that it was built from a lot of grass. It must have been a nice soft nest for the hatchlings to snuggle down in.

I've shown this nest before, but now that all of the leaves are gone, it's so much easier to see. You can see that it was constructed mainly of mud, with twigs and grass. It is really a pretty big nest. I'm hoping that the birds that lived in it last year will return this Spring, and I can see what type they are.

An aerie is built of twigs and sticks. It doesn't look particularly soft and cuddly, do you think?

These branches are infested with clusters of mistletoe, but the very top, left cluster, isn't mistletoe at all. It is the aerie that you saw in the previous picture!

This is a wonderful time of year to hunt for nests in the woods! With few or no leaves on the trees, just keep your eye out for a tangle of twigs in a Y, where a couple of branches come together.