# Why did parents leave the baby pigeon overnight?



## okay

I had a nest made by two feral pigeons on my balcony (I didn't know anything about those birds at the time). A couple of days ago the baby pigeon has safely hatched out of the egg and the parents were with him all day but for some reason they left it for the night. I thought it was normal at the time (As i said - I knew basically nothing about pigeons) but my mom mentioned the poor thing wasn't looking too good. Sadly it was too late and the little pigeon was dead. In the morning the parents came again.

My question is why would they leave it overnight if they stayed with him the whole day? They did the same thing with the egg. And also what am I supposed to do if they lay another egg and this happens again?


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## kiddy

They may abandon eggs or even babies if they are scared off something.
Now you have to see if,
1) their nest is safe from predators like hawks,cats, raccoons etc.?
2) you people too are accessing the place where the nest is located? 
3) you people ever watched them by going close to nest? 

Although they live among humans, still they don't like human interference.


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## okay

Yeah well it's our balcony so we have access to the place, still we tried to go there rarely because we didn't want to scare them and even if we went out they seemed perfectly calm and stayed with the egg. We do have a cat and he was once or twice at the balcony (I mean of course at the "egg stage") but they would come back 1 or 2 minutes after he was gone. The particular thing is they didn't abandon the egg or the baby they just left it overnight and then came back in the morning and this happened many times.


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## tbmama

I agree with kiddy, something probably scared them away. I get lots of different birds in my garden, and most of them become very aggressive if anything/anyone gets near the nest, but doves seem to just take off.


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## okay

tbmama said:


> I agree with kiddy, something probably scared them away. I get lots of different birds in my garden, and most of them become very aggressive if anything/anyone gets near the nest, but doves seem to just take off.


As I said the thing is they didn't abandon the nest. They were there all the time, just not the night. They came back every morning, even now they're still around


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## Whytpigeon

okay said:


> As I said the thing is they didn't abandon the nest. They were there all the time, just not the night. They came back every morning, even now they're still around


Young birds do not always do a good job of incubation. As they mature they usually do better. That is if something is not scaring them. Other birds like crows and Jay's can harass others off a nest to eat the eggs and or young, but it seems if that was the case the eggs would of disappeared .


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## Jay3

If it was late, like toward dusk and they were scared off the nest, and they flew off, then they probably would have been gone all night as they don't see well in the dark, and therefore don't like to fly in the dark. People moving about, and definitely a cat could cause this.


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## kiddy

okay said:


> As I said the thing is they didn't abandon the nest. They were there all the time, just not the night. They came back every morning, even now they're still around


Abandoning the nest with eggs is not the usual thing for them. Either of the parents always guards the eggs, females during the nights mostly. It wasn't a good sign when they were abandoning the eggs for nights(I mean something was definitely wrong ) and when they did it for baby and didn't return for long, that was fatal. 
You people might not spooked them if you were carefully accessing the area but the cat might have done it. 

In my opinion, such area should be blocked for them to nest where a cat walks by. Cats may even kill them/babies.


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## Jay3

As Kiddy has said, parents don't just leave their eggs and babies. They were most likely spooked and left. They didn't feel safe. Would be better to block off their access somehow so that this doesn't happen to another baby.


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## okay

Well my cat was there only when they werent there, only once he managed to go to the balcony when a bird was there (it was during the day) and it was at the early egg stage. As I said they came back right after and there was no problem. Also we never accesed the balcony during the evening or night. And when wr did sporadically access it during the day they never flew away. If it was the case of them being spooked and flying away I would have no questions but that just seems odd.


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## okay

Well my cat was there only when they werent there, only once he managed to go to the balcony when a bird was there (it was during the day) and it was at the early egg stage. As I said they came back right after and there was no problem. Also we never accesed the balcony during the evening or night. And when wr did sporadically access it during the day they never flew away. If it was the case of them being spooked and flying away I would have no questions but that just seems odd.


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## Whytpigeon

okay said:


> Well my cat was there only when they werent there, only once he managed to go to the balcony when a bird was there (it was during the day) and it was at the early egg stage. As I said they came back right after and there was no problem. Also we never accesed the balcony during the evening or night. And when wr did sporadically access it during the day they never flew away. If it was the case of them being spooked and flying away I would have no questions but that just seems odd.


Well some people know it all even if they are not even there...lol.. My guess is ....it could be a combo of things, young pair and just being flighty and unsure. I feel fine saying " I don't know" . Hopefully they will move on if they do not care for the spot.


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## kiddy

Well, none of us is there but the words like "most likely", "might have" etc. share the possibilities not the surety. Better to share the most probable reasons rather saying "I don't know".
That could be a reason if they were young having no experience of nesting, but that too is possibility.


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## Jay3

Whytpigeon said:


> *Well some people know it all even if they are not even there*...lol.. My guess is ....it could be a combo of things, young pair and just being flighty and unsure. I feel fine saying " I don't know" . Hopefully they will move on if they do not care for the spot.



Your answers very often have that edge or sarcasm towards others answers. Really not necessary. No one said they know what happened. The poster was looking for answers, and we are giving input of what we think it could be. Same thing you are doing. That isn't normal behavior for a pair, young or not. Not the norm, unless spooked by something or some other reason. Saying "I don't know" isn't really helpful now is it? Could be many things, so just pointing out the usual things.


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