Question by Bonnie B: how old do baby cardinals need to be before they can safely leave the nest?
A mother cardinal has two babies in my rosebush. Last night we had a wind storm and one of the babies fell out, mom wont let me near the baby to put it back into the nest. Both babies have a good amount of feathers, can the one who fell out survive on the ground??
Best answer:
Answer by crazy.carabid
Depends but generally they start fledging (learning how to fly, hence start leaving the nest) at around 10 days according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Look at how long the tail is, if it’s just a stub the bird is too young if it looks like it’s getting close to adult length then it’s a fledgling. Fledglings will spend a bit of time on the ground learning how to fly so even if you put it back in the nest it will simply flutter out again. Survival depends on a number of factors and it could survive on the ground if the parents are still taking care of it. However I’d place it back in the nest or at least in the tree / shrub near the nest if it seems to young to be a fledgling, as it is an easy target for house cats if it is on the ground; note HOUSE cat, that’s where they belong inside the house.
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Tags:Baby, before, cardinals, Cornell, Leave, need, nest, Ornithology, Safely, they
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