Why do birds reject their offspring when a human being touches them.?

Question

I have seen people take sparrow chicks out of their nests and put them back, and the mother never even feeds them anymore, and by the next day the chicks are usually dead.

Answer 1

They don't, and it's hilarious that so many people assert that they do (complete with "evidence" and reasoning).

http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/babybird.asp

Birds have a very poor sense of smell. This was more than likely made up to keep kids from messing with wild birds that could have lice or parasites or breaking their legs trying to put birds back into their nests.

Answer 2

They don't. This is an old wives tale as birds have a very poor sense of smell. I work as an ornithologist (bird biologist) and have to remove eggs and chicks from the nest and replace them ALL the time and have NEVER had a bird reject them. This was just something people used to tell their kids to keep them from disturbing birds nests. Not true in the least.

Answer 3

Birds do NOT reject baby birds if humans touch them, that is a myth.

Birds will reject babies and even kick them out of the nest if the baby is sick or deformed.

We have lots of trees in our yard and lots of birds, and occasionally an entire nest will fall from a tree due to winds or rain.
We place the nest inside a small brown paper bag and gather the baby birds and/or eggs and place them back inside and then wire the bag to the tree branch, and the mama birds come back and still care for their young.
One time, we placed the nest on the wrong branch, and noticed the mama bird came back and couldn't find her babies, so we waited until she left and moved the nest and then when she came back she found them!

Answer 4

When humans touch something, we often leave a scent our noses can't detect. Therefore, the scent on the chicks tell the mother that these aren't her chicks or that this human scent means danger. To prevent danger, the mother usually ignores the chick or tortures it. That's a signs that us people should live Mother Nature alone.

Answer 5

It's my understanding that they reject their young because of the smell we as humans leave behind and the disruption of a home. their young are sort of like ours only we do not in some cases abandon our young. And we must also think of the birds intelligence as oppose to ours, we are the upper class for intelligence and the bird wild with wild instincts we due as their nature calls human touch dangerous so birds are infected with our smell we are deadly and dangerous so they see and with small brian they act as best they know even if it means leaving their young

Answer 6

Mother birds recognize offspring as their own through scent. When a human touches them and leaves their own scent it confuses the mother and she rejects it because she does not recognize the offspring as her's.

Answer 7

your not soposed to touch them any ways but they dont. (trust me when you have a nest in your plant you bought a week ago and there are eggs inside of the plant you cant help but touch them)

Answer 8

The smell of humans frightens the bird

Answer 9

It's because the mother thinks you did something to it, so the mother's first choice of action is to leave it alone, it assumes its baby is now one of you.

Answer 10

yes this is true humane smell to wild bird we don't think we smell but we do, the only reason pet birds don't reject there young from us is because they' ve lived with humanes there whloe life.