Can/do birds move eggs from a nest?

Coon got em

As long as it is a snake, raccoon, other bird, etc. I usually don't have a problem with it (unless it is a shitty house sparrow or starling). That's just Nature being Nature. But roaming cats doing it just pisses me off.

Birds on our property have started building nests in the chicken coop. Smartest thing I've a seen a bird do

quote:

---

How do predators find these nests? I’ve only ever seen hummingbirds in this area for feeders and they were of course hanging.

---

That's the business they're in. All they do is cruise around all day/night looking for food. It is early yet, and that pair of birds has time to nest again. Keep an eye out, they may build somewhere closeby.

quote:

---

I once watched a speckled king swallow four eggs one after the other once…he looked like a strand of Mardi Gras beads. It was a sparrow nest otherwise I’d have shooed him off

---

My grandmother believed that's what golf balls were for. She'd keep a golf ball or two in the nest boxes of her chicken coop. The snakes would be so into devouring the eggs that they'd take the ball without notice. I once found a dead chicken snake with what looked like four golf balls in it.

In the words of my grandmother, "That snake ortta been smarter."

It was a snake. I've seen it happen. A snake will watch a bird building its nest (returning to the same spot over and over). They'll eat every egg, sometimes even at night, the little birds don't fight much.

quote:

---

My grandmother believed that's what golf balls were for. She'd keep a golf ball or two in the nest boxes of her chicken coop. The snakes would be so into devouring the eggs that they'd take the ball without notice. I once found a dead chicken snake with what looked like four golf balls in it.

In the words of my grandmother, "That snake ortta been smarter."

---

Love that story

quote:

---

Same thing happened to my blue bird nest no signs of eggs anywhere. Had to be snake. Put a new house up new nest up 5 new eggs. I’m watching it close

---

I've almost converted all my bluebird/tree swallow boxes to these free standing conduit and rebar mounts. I use a five gallon bucket and the bendable metal pipe strap to make a predator guard. It is too big around for even the longest chicken snake to climb, plus it has to go up the conduit, into the bucket, and make the turn on to the bucket just to try to climb it. The bucket also wobbles, so it is hard for a raccoon to stay on it.



The bush is now gone, so a snake can't go from it to the house. I use white buckets on most of them that are near the front of our property, they just look better. The house itself has proven successful after a year or so for the birds to get used to them. They're made out of PVC pipe with a red cedar bottom, and painted to look like a birch tree. You just squeeze them to get them off their mount to check the nest; easy off/easy on.

They're easy to make if you have a few tools and are handy.

Woman. But I sure hope that they do.