# Baby pigeon alone on my balcony at night



## Egliteu (Jun 21, 2019)

Hi!
So, truth be told, i only joined the forum because i'm not knowledgeable about pigeons, or birds in general, and i'm just worried i suppose.

So, a pair of pigeons have a nest on my balcony, and their baby hatched 5-7 days ago. Recently they've started to leave it alone more often, but they always returned at night, so i hadn't been worried at all.
Except today. They always were back around 10-11-ish, but currently, it's about 1 am, and the parents still aren't back. I can see that one of them is nearby, perched on a ledge on a house opposite to mine. However the other is nowhere to be seen.
It is summer (66f/19c degrees at night) so i'm not all that worried about it freezing to death, but i'm concerned that they might've straight up abandoned it, like they did with their first egg (they laid it on the ledge of my balcony -- 9th floor, and my cat was very keen on terrorizing them). 
My cat has laid off the slamming his face into the glass whenever one of the parents fly over thing, so i don't think he'd be the cause for them leaving, plus, why would they leave once he's calmed down for the most part?
I do sometimes also go on the balcony, to peek on the baby, but i've never gone too close, never went out while the parents were there(tried to be there for as short as possible - 2 minutes at most at a time), and especially no touching, the parents always flew back after that as well, so I assumed they either hadn't noticed, or maybe i wasn't dangerous(grasping at straws? possibly.)

So the question is - do the parents leave their babies at night sometimes - while at least one of them is nearby? Is that a normal thing, for a pigeon around a week old? And if not, what the heck should I do?
As far as I know, the parents have been gone since about 9.30. And I have been hearing movement, but no wing flapping, so i'm also concerned that the baby will tumble out of the flower pot the nest is in.


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## Egliteu (Jun 21, 2019)

Update - 2 am, they're still not back, one of the parents still is perched on the neighboring house, and i assume it's asleep. The baby seems alright, whenever it heard me approaching, it moved around and seemed to be alert, didn't seem to be cold either, but it has dropped a degree or two.
I did hear some cooing nearby, so the parents might be keeping an eye on the baby still? Or maybe at least letting it know that they were nearby.


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## Egliteu (Jun 21, 2019)

3 am. Spotted the other pigeon near the parent that was nearby. Peeked at the baby, and it seemed to be okay for the most part. it wasn't shivering, but it was breathing a bit quick. Temp seems to be more or less the same since the beginning of the night, so hopefully it's just a bit spooked from being alone for a long while.
The fact that the parents are nearby is comforting, gives me hope that maybe they're just testing it or something, and haven't abandoned the baby.
The sun should be out in about an hour, so the parents may go check on the baby after they've woken up? My messed up sleep schedule will let me see if that happens or not.


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## bootface (Jun 29, 2017)

Some pigeons leave their babies alone at night surprisingly early. Unless something is obviously wrong with the baby I just assume they know what they’re doing. As long as they feed him through the day I wouldn’t worry. 

Pigeons wont move around at night if they can help it. If they aren’t there by dusk he’ll be alone all night.


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