Birds are falling out of the trees!

[lzyjo]

What the hay is going on!! In the past few days there have been three or four young cat birds in the lawn in different parts of the yard. The worst part is the dog gets them and damages them, but he doesn't kill them, so we have to go out and "finish them off." It's truly horrible. Is this normal to find chicks all over the ground? They're big too. I don't see how many of them could fit in a nest together. DH stepped on one while he was going through the gate, it was just sitting there. I almost stepped on one too, just walking through the lawn. The birds are starting to hate us.

[terrier]

Hey, Izyjo, what in the world are catbirds? Our cats certainly catch plenty of birds, especially swallows this time of year but I don't think we have catbirds in the UK. Maybe you're putting too much food out for them

[Polly Fouracre]

These are fledglings, big enough to fly from the nest but not big enough to care for themselves.
Put them up somewhere out of the dog's way and their parents will see to them.
I dare say the poor parent birds are a bit exhausted as these may well be their third brood!!

[lzyjo]

Gee, I must sound like a raving lunatic. I guess they only live in North America, but they are similar to mockingbirds and starlings. Yes, some of them are still fuzzy and some have most of their feathers, but they still have the chicky looking beak. That's a good point, terrier, I definitely do NOT feed them, but I was thinking it must be all the worms and insects in the cow pastures that is driving them to live here. The first one I found I put back onto a the tree, but like 30 minutes later he was gone and the dog somehow found him in the grass.

[terrier]

After your post I looked up cat birds on the net. Evidently you have cow birds as well that, a bit like the cuckoo, will lay their eggs in the cat birds nest. Maybe they are hatching and the cat birds are throwing them out? Although I think I'd go with Polly Fouracre's answer. Fascinating

[lzyjo]

haha, that's funny I think we must have read the same article. I checked Wikipedia after your post to see if they had another name and I saw the bit about the cowbird. I think you're right, especially since there are cows and I did see numerous blue eggs on the ground in the months previous, that they may have kicked out. That parasitic nest behavior is weird stuff. Thanks for the help.

[lzyjo]

I found another one in the front yard this morning. It was already dead.