What could be the reason why baby birds die in their nest?
It is possible that parents may abandon the nest due to a traumatic event such as extensive investigation of the nest by a predator, infestation of insects or the usurpation of the nest box by a competing specie. This abandonment would leave the young to starve in the nest. Even the loss of one parent decreases the survival rate of the young as the remaining parent may not cope up with the increasing feeding rate. Other possible reasons are genetic disorder and chemical poisoning which are both difficult to determine.
