What happened to this baby bird?

Question

yesterday a fledgling fell out of it's nest....or it was trying to fly....not sure...my husband placed it back in what he thought was it's nest...I went out to check on it today and it's dead...Why would a seamingly healthy baby bird die in such a short period of time? I thought we did a good thing...not sure if it was to cold for the baby or not...what happened?

Answer 1

If it couldn't fly it may have been injured during the fall.

Also it sounds like the nest was empty. Perhaps this was the last baby in the brood and it was not developed enough to fledge with the rest. Parents will come back occasionally to feed it but the most attention will be paid to the healthier and stronger ones. So it either starved because parents gave up on it or it was injured during the fall...

Answer 2

It may not have been healthy and the parents may have pushed it out of the nest to get rid of it because they knew it was sick.  In the wild, animal parents do not waste their time and effort on sickly babies.  They get rid of them and take care of the healthy ones to keep the gene pool strong.  It was probably inevitable that it was going to die no matter what you did for it.  It is survival of the fittest.

Answer 3

It likely starved.

The parents let them peep and only feed them a bit after they leave the nest.

What they need at that point is only some bushes to fly up into if they feel threatened.