Not every egg laid by a bird will hatch. This can be devastating for birds who laid then and tried to incubate the egg to no avail. Unfortunately, it’s a fact of life. In fact, it is said that 10 – 15 percent of bird eggs don’t hatch. So what happens to these bird eggs? What do birds do with the unhatched eggs? This article looks into it. If you’re a bird owner, bird enthusiast or are simply curios this article is for you

There are a couple of things that the mother bird can do if the egg doesn’t hatch. After her incubation attempts the mother bird will either eat the egg as a source of protein, remove it from the nest, bury the eggs or in some cases, like in the case of the bluebird, it will build a new next over the old egg.

What do birds do with unhatched eggs?

Occasionally, all the eggs in a clutch or a few of them fail to hatch. The mother bird does everything she should, sitting on them for the required number of days but still, no chicks emerge from the eggs. The reason why bird eggs don’t hatch most of the time is that they were not fertilized in the first place. The mother bird may have laid them without mating with a male, or the male bird she met with was infertile.

When bird parents realize that their egg(s) isn’t going to hatch, they remove them, eat them, or bury them. Bluebirds, build a new nest on top of their nonviable eggs. The unhatched eggs of eagles get broken to pieces through constant activity in the nest. Other species of birds simply push the unhatched eggs out of the nest.

Should I remove unhatched eggs?

It is very wrong for humans to tamper with a bird’s nest. You might have taken notice of a nest containing eggs somewhere in the woods or on your property. To you, it appears the eggs in the nest have been abandoned, but that isn’t always the case.

Some birds like to lay all the eggs in a clutch before they start incubating. If the eggs aren’t all laid, the mother bird does not sit on them. So they might appear abandoned. If you have no idea when the eggs in a nest were laid, don’t remove them thinking they are nonviable.

What happens to unhatched bird eggs?

When bird eggs don’t hatch, their parents remove them from the nest most of the time. In the case where the eggs aren’t tossed out, they decompose in the nest. The decomposed eggs soon get buried and forgotten under a new nest built by the bird parents.

Do birds get rid of bad eggs?

Birds get rid of bad eggs all the time. When bird parents realize that their egg is unhealthy or unfertilized, they waste no time and toss it out of the nest. Sometimes, bird parents remove eggs from their nest if they sense that they wouldn’t be able to care for all the eggs laid. In such a situation, the eggs weren’t bad, they were just unfortunate to be selected as the ones to be tossed out.

Why do birds abandon their nests with eggs?

If a bird has abandoned its nest with eggs, there is a reason behind it. Birds don’t just walk away from their nest or eggs. These creatures love their eggs just as much as a human mother loves her unborn child.

The primary reason birds leave their nest and eggs is that a predator has either frightened or attacked them. Humans getting too close to the area is another reason why birds abandon their nests with eggs.

Conclusion

In conclusion, if the egg does not hatch and the mother realises this then she will either eat the egg, push it out of the nest or build a new nest over it.

If you find what seems to be abandoned eggs don’t touch them. If the parents don’t remove the eggs then they will simply decompose on their own.

If the parents realize that the egg is a bad egg, either unhealthy or unfertilized, then the parents will get rid of it. If you notice that parent birds have abandoned their eggs then this is most likely because the parents have been frightened away.

If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other bird related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Can birds move their babies? Can birds eat hemp seeds? Do birds have friends? How do birds show affection to humans? How to know if a bird egg is alive? Do penguins bury their dead?