(Reprinted from Backyard Chatter, July, 2005, published by
Backyard Birds, Inc., Sandy, Bill & Sherry Seibert)

The lives of most common birds are surprisingly short. A fact that is not easy to accept is that very few of the eggs laid each year produce chicks that survive into adulthood. In order for a species population to remain stable, each pair of birds needs to rear only two offspring to grow up and replace them. Since many species of songbirds lay two or three clutches of three to six eggs in a summer, the world would soon be swarming with too many birds if all of these offsprings survived.

As many as one-third of all eggs fail to hatch. Some are infertile, and others become chilled if the parent is forced to remain away too long looking for food. Entire clutches can be lost to predators such as squirrels, raccoons and larger birds. Humans can unknowingly contribute to some deaths by working or relaxing too close to a nest. The parent birds may scold us but often we don’t realize what all the fuss is about. The result is eggs become chilled because of the parent’s absence from the nest. To offset the enormous loss of eggs, a pair quickly starts a new clutch. It may take two or three attempts for them to rear a family. The loss rate drops once the eggs have hatched as the most vulnerable nests have already been lost and parents are also less likely to desert nestlings than eggs. However, some nestlings do die from starvation, being squashed by the parent, nest predation or from falling from the nest.

If young birds survive the hazardous first few weeks, their life expectancy improves somewhat. The most difficult time for a bird to live through is the first year of its life because there is so much to learn. If it lives for one year, it has a good chance of living for several more, although, the average life span for most small birds is only about two to five years. There are records of individuals living for many years, but these cases are unusual.

There are a few things we can do to help our birds live longer. Feeders and birdbaths should be near shrubs and trees where birds can escape if a hawk appears but should not be immediately next to undergrowth where cats can hide. If cats continually are able to sneak up on the birds in your yard, you might try laying chickenwire on the ground around your feeders to slow their approach and give the birds time to escape. Keep a bucket of water close at hand to douse stalking cats. Often the shock of a near miss is just as good as a direct hit.

Although most nestlings are fed insects, having well stocked feeders to rely on gives the parent birds a fast food stop for their own meals. This gives them more time for insect hunting or for brooding during cold spells. After young birds are on their own your feeders will be very popular. You don’t need to worry that they will not learn to forage for themselves. Birds are always on the look out for new food sources. Studies show that even in the worst of weather, birds only get a small percentage of their diet from feeders.