I have a camera on a Blackbirds nest and have been watching her on a TV monitor. Two eggs hatched early yesterday morning and one egg is still in the nest. I am beginning to worry because although she leaves the nest quite often to feed, she never brings back any food for the chicks. Also there is no sign of a male Blackbird which I understood helped to feed the chicks.
Is it normal behavior for her not to feed the chicks until all the eggs have hatched? or is there something untoward going on?
Hi - it's hard to say exactly what's going on here - normally, both adults feed the young once they've hatched and they need feeding pretty much as soon as they hatch, and very regularly. Is it possible you've missed her feeding them on the camera? Are you watching constantly or could you have missed it?
They wouldn't wait for the last egg to hatch to start feeding - they're more likely to concentrate on the two hatchlings and leave the unhatched egg. Where the male is i also can't answer but it's not uncommon for one adult to bring up a full brood alone, but obviously it involves a lot of work. Putting suitable food out nearby, such as mealworms, as well as some water, will make her job a lot easier.
Let us know how it all progresses - i hope things work out for her.
LRB
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Thank you for your reply, unfortunately things are getting worse. There is no male Blackbird in the immediate area. The chicks have not been fed at all . She flies off the nest and I can see her feeding herself, but she never brings anything back to the nest. When she gets back o the nest she pushes the chicks around and then sits on them. The chicks are so weak they can hardly lift their heads and can only just manage to open their mouths when she gets back. It's heartbreaking watching them open their mouths for food when all she does is sit on them.
I have water and mealworms near by and I have dug the border where she feeds and have had the sprinkler on. The ground is soft and damp so there is no reason why she can't dig for worms.
I have tried making a noise so that she flies off of the nest and hopefully will bring food back but that didn't work.
Is it best to leave her sitting there now until the chicks expire? I don't think I can watch anymore, it's much too distressing.
This is a really sad situation - it could be that she's a new mum and doesn't know what she's doing, especially without the male who may have shown her the ropes - something has obviously happened to the male which has meant he hasn't returned, otherwise he would do. Blackbirds are usually very attentive parents - the brood is split between the two adults, with the male caring for his half longer than the female, but this doesn't happen until much later when the young fledge from the nest.
Unfortunately, sad as it is, there's very little that can be done except to leave her to it - hopefully she'll hook up with another male before the season is out and perhaps have a succesful brood later - it's not uncommon for blackbirds to have 2 or 3 broods over the season.
UPDATE
Day 3 after the chicks had hatched they had never been fed. There is a second Blackbirds nest in another part of the garden. In the afternoon of day three in the area of the second nest, I saw a female Blackbird viciously attacking another female, at the time the female I have been watching was not on her nest. ( The female from nest two still has one wing feather going straight up in the air.)
Early morning day four a male Blackbird landed on the nest with the female. He gave her some worms and watched as she fed the chicks. That is the only time I have seen her feed them. Since then the male always feeds them. He came to the nest one time with his beak full of worms but she refused to get off of the nest he tried pushing her off but she wouldn't budge so he gave them to her instead. He doesn't feed them very often but I know when he's about because I can hear him call her to get off of the nest.
The extraordinary thing though is that this male is also feeding the chicks from nest two. There are a lot of Jackdaws and Rooks here who would eat all the mealworms if I put them on the ground for the Blackbird, so every evening at 7pm ( the Jackdaws and Rooks have gone by then) I put mealworms under the same tree. The male goes straight to them taking some to each nest.
There are two chicks, I have looked at videos of chicks of the same age and would say these two are not as advanced but they are alive. One is thriving better than the other.
I took this photo today, unfortunately I had to photograph the screen of the monitor.