Do birds feel sadness?

Dad claiming the nesting box

The privilege of having a pair of birds select your garden and your nesting box to raise a family, cannot be underestimated. Such was our luck when the House Wren pair chose to make whoopee and lay eggs right outside the living room window in a gorgeous nesting box hung up especially for first-time renters. For a few weeks we watched them add twigs to the nest through the tiny hole.  We saw one of them in and out of the next for a couple of weeks (I know now that it was the male feeding the female while she incubated the eggs). I watched a female Brown-headed Cowbird try to gain entry into the nesting box but that entrance hole was so tiny, she could only fit her head in thankfully.

Last week we noticed food was being carried to the nest by both Wrens - although the male and female look identical, the speed of the food coming in, confirmed it couldn't be just one bird. The male would dance a little jig every now and again and sing with a mouth full of food which reminded me of Neo trying to bark with a ball in his mouth. Too cute. With Janet and Tracey visiting, this special viewing just added to the fun week we were having. Sitting inside with all the doors closed and the AC blowing, we could still hear the screams from the nest as hungry mouths demanded to be fed.

On Friday and Saturday there was a lot of action at the nest and the noise the chicks made was amazing. Raucous, like kids frolicking nest to a swimming pool on a hot day. Many times one of us grabbed the binoculars and when standing at a certain angle on the top step, you could sort-of see into the tiny, dark hole. We counted 4 mouths moving in the dark - a lot of grocery shopping to do for this couple. Tracey and Janet both left for home on Sunday morning and we weren't in the living room for most of the day, getting the house ready for a friend coming to visit. Ruth arrived late on Sunday.

This morning (Monday), the kids were extra vocal and coming towards the front of the hole so Ruth and I spent time trying to get a few photos. Something I was trying to get a shot of, was the parent leaving with the fecal sac (the babies don't poop in the nest as that would get quite mucky so when mom or dad pokes their butt, they poop into a sac/bag and the very patient parent, picks it up and flies off with it before disposing of it far away) so I had zoomed in quite a bit.  I noticed a bit of the nesting material sticking out of the hole but paid it no mind as the Wrens were ignoring it, hanging on and feeding those crazed yellow gapes. Over and over.

The tiny leg sticking out of the nesting hole

A bit later, Ruth noticed the nesting material and another close-up view of the nest confirmed it was in fact a bird foot sticking out. Not pretty. We assumed one of the chicks had not made it. We briefly discussed removing the chick but were slightly freaked out so decided to leave it as it wasn't bothering the adults constantly bringing food. Later Jacques came upstairs and when I pointed it out, he said he would remove it. As freaked out as I was, I had my camera at the ready.

Hubby going above and beyond

Plastic shopping bag, disposable glove and step ladder in hand, he went out to the nest. He reached up and pulled. It turned out not to be an easy task but he did remove the chick and place him in the bag for me to look at. I was horrified to see it wasn't a chick, but an adult. It was starting to decompose with the heat we've been having, this tiny body wouldn't need too long so assumed it happened yesterday. I couldn't see any obvious reasons why it died. Without identifying marks, there was no way to know whether this was mom or dad.

I let my sisters know as they were quite invested in this family all of last week. Tracey asked the question "Do you think birds feel sadness?". It was a good question and one that did give pause for thought before I answered that I didn't think so as the other adult had been in and out of the nest all day, hanging on to the nest hole with that decomposing leg blocking part of the entrance and it didn't seem to be a problem.

Rest in Peace Mr Wren

So the adults we had been watching all morning, turned out to be just one. After much thought, I sadly realized that the male was the one in the now-sealed shopping bag. The lack of dancing and calling at the nest has gone and only the sounds of demanding teenagers remains. I would like to think that he went bravely into the night after defending his children from something with a sharp bill, looking for a tasty treat.


What an incredible feat for mom though.  No time to feel sorry for herself, she just picked up feeding duties of her quadruplets and can be seen entering the nest (she is entering now that dad isn't blocking the entrance any more) with bug after spider after worm after fly. Minute after minute. I am eternally grateful my garden is wild and the insects have produced in their hordes this summer as she is going to need all the help she can get raising those kids, getting them off to college and eventually kicking them out of the nest.  I only hope I am home and look up from my laptop screen at just the right time to see that miracle. 



Until then I am sending happy thoughts for this single mother family that are going to need all the happy thoughts they can get.