Do Mother Birds Sleep Alongside Their Babies? (Solved) - Bird Gap

Last updated on October 15th, 2022 at 03:03 pm

Mother birds put a lot of time and energy into caring for their young, and they build elaborate nests to keep their babies warm and safe.

But do they sleep in the nest, too?

Mother birds don’t sleep in the nest with their babies unless it’s a particularly cold night. Most of the time, mother birds sleep outside the nest somewhere nearby so that the chicks have plenty of room to move and grow. Many adult birds sleep in tree cavities or while perched in bushes.

Table of Contents

• Why Mother Birds Sometimes Sleep in the Nest
  • How Mother Birds Keep Their Chicks Warm
  • How Nests Keep Baby Birds Warm
  • What To Do if You Find Abandoned Baby Birds in the Cold
• Where Do Birds Usually Sleep?
  • Waterfowl
  • Shorebirds
  • Birds of Prey
  • Corvids
  • Passeriformes
• Sources

Why Mother Birds Sometimes Sleep in the Nest

As a general rule, mother birds will not sleep in the nest, even with baby chicks.

However, there is one exception: when it’s especially cold outside, the mother bird will sleep in the nest with her young to keep them warm. This is known as brooding.

They will also sleep in the nest before their babies are hatched, during the incubation process.

How Mother Birds Keep Their Chicks Warm

Many young birds die due to cold, wet weather; in some areas, prolonged cold fronts have wiped out the majority of new fledglings, leaving just a few to grow into adults.

This happens because baby birds lack the feathers necessary to keep themselves warm and dry, and the parent birds can’t spend 24/7 brooding. They must hunt for food.

However, fledglings can survive cold, wet weather in the short term by tucking underneath their parents.

It works especially well for a mother bird to sleep in the nest with her babies at night because temperatures are typically at their lowest.

Also, the mother doesn’t need to hunt during this time.

Many songbirds have a bare patch of skin called a brood patch on their bellies.

The brood patch becomes engorged with blood vessels just before incubating the eggs and then stays that way throughout the breeding season.

This ensures that the parents are capable of keeping new eggs and hatchlings warm through close contact.

Check out also our article on how long baby birds stay with their mother.

How Nests Keep Baby Birds Warm

Bird nests are built with insulation to keep the baby birds warm throughout the process of incubation, hatching, and early days.

Mother birds decide how much insulation is necessary based on the weather while building the nests.

This means that baby birds are more vulnerable if there are sudden temperature changes, regardless of how cold it is.

The materials that a mother bird will use for a nest depend entirely on the climate and weather where she is building.

In warm, wet climates, birds will choose materials that dry quickly but do not hold in heat, like sticks and grasses.

Where warmth is a bigger consideration, birds may opt for fur or wool.

What To Do if You Find Abandoned Baby Birds in the Cold

If you find baby birds left in the cold without a mother, the first and most important thing you should do is call a wildlife rehabilitator.

They will be able to offer expert advice and instructions to make sure that the best-case scenario develops.

If you have contacted a rehabilitator and are waiting to hear back, follow these steps to keep an abandoned baby bird warm.

1. Check to make sure it is a hatchling, not a fledgling. Hatchlings have just a few fluffs of soft feathers and cannot stay warm on their own, whereas fledglings have more feathers and can safely navigate the world outside the nest.
2. Check the bird for injuries. If the bird is unable to balance itself, wet, or surrounded by flies, the chances are that there is an urgent medical condition that needs to be addressed. Take note of these signs for when you transport the bird to a wildlife rehabilitation center and be careful not to exacerbate the problem by transferring the bird roughly.
3. Place the bird in a dark, warm, quiet place. A cardboard box is often a good choice, just so long as you include a heat source. Good options for heating the box include a plastic water bottle filled with hot tap water, a clean sock filled with uncooked rice and microwaved, and an electric heating pad set to low, placed under half of the box.
4. Do not give the bird water. Trying to give the baby bird a drink can get it wet, which means that it will get colder faster. You should also avoid giving the baby bird food, which can result in choking.

Where Do Birds Usually Sleep?

When birds sleep, or roost, they need to find a place that keeps them safe and warm.

For songbirds, this means being in the dense foliage where cats can’t access them, and they’ll be out of sight of birds of prey.

Other birds can afford to sleep out in the open, right on the ground or on the surface of a body of water.

More specifically, the best place for each bird to roost depends on the species.

Different species have different needs in terms of protection from predators, warmth, and physical space.

Waterfowl

Waterbirds like geese, ducks, herons, and egrets sleep in or close to bodies of water.

If they remain in the water while sleeping, as many do, they’ll rely on the feel of vibrations in the water as a means of detecting oncoming predators.

Some water birds, like herons, will roost on land if they can do so as a part of a flock.

Flock birds have strategies for staying safe in the night, like keeping the birds on the edge of the flock half awake so that they can warn other birds of predators if necessary.

Many waterfowl will stay warm while roosting by standing on one leg, tucking the other up its feathers.

Shorebirds

Shorebirds, like many waterfowl, rely on the safety of a flock to make it through the night.

They typically roost out in the open on a seashore, even though this leaves them vulnerable to raptors.

This is because they are not capable of sitting in trees or floating on the water.

Birds of Prey

Birds of prey like hawks, owls, and eagles will usually sleep perched on tree branches, somewhere far off the ground to stay away from predators.

Owls that sleep during the day will hide tucked away in foliage to sleep to keep the daylight out. Some species of owls also sleep in tree cavities.

Corvids

Corvids like ravens and crows sleep tucked away in trees, often in large flocks.

They do this to stay safe from predators and to share information about food sources and dangers nearby.

Corvids are heavy communicators, and their social activity is easy to hear when they gather at dusk.

Passeriformes

Passeriformes, or perching birds, comprise more than half of all bird species, including common songbirds like sparrows, jays, and warblers.

These birds roost in dense vegetation like hedges, trees, and bushes, finding a sturdy branch to sit on and then balancing as they sleep through the night.

Sources

• Slate: Where Do Birds Sleep? Roosting In Nests, Water, Flocks, Cavities
• ABC Science: How Do Birds Sleep? Dr Karl’s Great Moments In Science
• Audubon: How Do Birds Spend Cold Winter Nights?