HELP.... theres a pigeon nest on my windowsill with 2 cute little eggs but theres a prob.?

Question

the mama pigeon instead of sitting on the eggs she left over houses across the street and for 24 hours she hasent been back:( i need to no if shes goin to come back or not and if no then i wana keep the eggs warm and all the stuff so can you please help me ooo and i want someone that actully knows stuff about birds please these baby birds might be in trouble.. please help..

Answer 1

Pigeons are prolific for a reason.  don't worry.  She probably chose your windowsill becausse of the amount of llight it would get for one thing and for another thing, she might not have a fulll nest yet.  She will not start to incubate the eggs until she has a full nest.  That way, they all hatch at the same time and are the same age as they grow.  A few hours makes a big difference with baby birds when they are very young and competing for food.  Give them a few days, and if the hen comes back and adds to the nest then later starts to sit on the nest you will know all is fine and will get a first hand view of them hatching.  Otherwise, you will have to decide to incubate them yourself.  But still don't worry, if they have not been started, they will be be fine.

Answer 2

Pigeons know what they're doing.  Usually they'll lay clutches of two, so they're right on target.  Don't worry--the incubation is shared by both parents, and eggs can last a while without the parents if the temperature is right.  If the mother was killed by some reason--due to trapping, poison, falcons, or other unknown possibilities--the father will take over the care of the young.

You *do not* want to take the eggs in yourself.  The care of young eggs is very strenuous and hard.  You would need to keep the eggs at a certain temperature--around 99.8 degrees for most birds, but I'm not sure about pigeons.  You also need to maintain a humidity level as well!  You would need to rotate the eggs every 2 hours, including night--do you want to wake up at 12 midnight, rotate the eggs, sleep, wake up at 2 AM, rotate the eggs, sleep, wake up at 4 AM, rotate the eggs, sleep, etc?  You would also need to care for the young birds if and when they hatch for a full month.  They need around the clock attention, and you would need to feed them crop milk, a substance produced by pigeons--not by humans, nor can any human duplicate crop milk.  Without crop milk, it is likely that they will not survive.

Also, there are several reasons why the parents may have left the nest for such a prolonged period of time.  They might have decided that it's too dangerous, near a human window.  Try to stay *away* from that window, because humans are predators to birds.  THe eggs might also have been infertile.  Whatever the reason, I'm sure it's a good one.

Wait another day to see if they return.

Best of luck,

Phoenix