Help -- baby birds in my garage, broken nest

[moonfirefaery]

There has been a nest above my electrical box ever since I moved in, and I never thought anything of it. Well, today I bustled in with another armful of laundry to find this nest on the floor in complete disrepair with two injured baby birds and two healthy ones. I had no idea what to do. I tried to gather up the nest and put it back on the box, but the nest won't stay together and I'm afraid the birds will just fall again. One of the injured ones was dead within minutes; the other is bleeding a little, but seems okay. I have placed the nest in a shallow glass cooking pan on a shelf in my garage near where it originally sat. I tried not to touch the birds and was handling them with a cloth, but I may have touched some with my hands when I first found them. I have heard that will cause the mother not to feed them but she does seem to be feeding them inside the relocated nest.

I am just wondering, what should I do now? I am planning to just leave the birds and the nest alone and let the mama do her thing, and if she doesn't then I'm in a new pickle...but is there anything else I should or could do? Should I bury the one that died? Can I do anything for the injured one? These are very young baby birds, they don't even have all of their feathers. Until I found the nest on the floor, I had no idea any birds had even taken up residence there. Advice please?

[Ldavis24]

Honestly, if the nest is totally destroyed I doubt mama will come back to it...If it hadn't been then yes she might have. Sometimes they do sometimes they don't.

If they aren't even full feathered yet they won't last long without her..

This may be wrong or right but I have myself raised many baby birds since I was a kid, some that barely had any feathers and I generally had good success rates. If you aren't up to caring for them yourself (totally understandably) it is a big commitment 

I would find a wildlife rehabber ASAP...They really won't last long without warmth and food.

Depending on the breed (I find robins the easiest to rehab, they love love love worms and are easy to feed mashed up worms with a wide mouthed eyedropper) you'd have to figure out what their ideal diet is etc...mash it up, liquify it a little bit make it easy for them to digest, get it down their throats...it can be a chore, then you have to teach them to hunt, fly etc (I have done it all hehe)

my advice just go to the rehabber, they are equipped and can handle most baby anythings!

Goodluck, time is of the essence.

BTW, I don't want to offend anyone offering my not so professional advice, I am just pointing out that in some cases it is fairly straight forward to raise baby birds yourself!

[moonfirefaery]

I just saw the mama bringing them a worm, so she is taking care of them. I kind of pushed the nest back together and reshaped it, but it's being held together by the sides of the pan. If she stops taking care of them I'll have to take them to a rehabber because I work too much to care for them. I'm worried that she will kick one out because it smells funny or something :/

[Think of Winter]

It's a fallacy that birds abandon babies that smell like people. If she's feeding the survivors, they should be fine. Is the glass container holding the nest together? I would take the dead one out, bury it, toss it in the garbage, whatever. I guess mama can get into your garage at will?

ETA: Do you know what knocked the nest down?

[Ldavis24]

if she's willing to feed them then they should be fine...thats really great, the only thing that made me think she might not is if the nest was really really damaged.

Definitely keep an eye out though, mama bird could get killed or something and the babies would need your care (or you finding a rehabber). Also when they are ready to learn how to fly, don't be alarmed if you see one sitting on the ground for a while...Mama will sometimes push them right out of the nest. I have seen babies literally sit for a few hours before figuring out how to get off the ground again. it's all a learning process at that stage.

Goodluck and enjoy watching the babies grow!

[moonfirefaery]

Think of Winter - No, I don't know how it fell down. I disposed of the dead one, and I have the door open so she can come in and out. It's always been open. I can't believe I never saw her until now.

Thanks for y'alls advice, I feel a little better now. I was all up in a tizzy when I discovered that broken nest and heard those little squawk-chirps. :(