Are kibbled sunflower heatrs bad for breeding Robins?

[Jack]

We were thrilled when a pair of Robins began nesting in one of our boxes but, sadly, it's all gone wrong.
We watched as the pair built the nest then went about their business for a while, filling up with meal worms and feeding on the kibbled sunflower hearts, which I thought was probably quite unusual.
Anyway, we noticed that the Robin traffic has ceased. We left it more than a week and then decided to have a quick look.
Unfortunately we found two dead chicks, both with fly's eggs laid all over them.
I wondered if the kibbled sunflower hearts might be to blame? The Robins never went near them when they whole hearts but often visit them now they're kibbled.
Is there a chance that they too rich for the Robin's young or maybe even choked them. The young were not even an inch long and had no emerging feathers, only black fluffy down so I guess they were quite young.

On a lighter note the birds seem to be having a joke with us; the robins had nested in the Blackbird box and the Blue Tits (still there) are in the Sparrow box!!

Any answers?

Jack

[PiratesAhoy!]

Don't blame yourself. Robins would not generally feed sunflowers to their young anyway. They feed them caterpillars, small insects, etc.

There could be any number of reasons why the chicks died. Could have been starvation, could have been too cold for them (recently it's been quite chilly at night), or some sort of disease. If it was starvation, then it could have been that the parents were disturbed by predators and abandoned the nest. It could quite literally have ben anything.

Our adult robins (and tits) supplement their own diet with sunflowers and other things like kibbled peanuts, but as I say, they don't feed that to their young.

Blueys don't follow the rules! We have several nest boxes, and the one that we put the camera in, is the one they didn't use for nesting! Plus, they've used the sparrow terrace as wel. It's a bluey thing :)

[Jack]

Piratesahoy,

I'm sorry I've only just got around to thanking you for the reply but it's been a bit hectic recently; work, travel and a computer crash that lasted two weeks all played their part.

The (well a pair anyway) of Robins returned to the nest about a month later, pulled out all the old material and started again. Sadly though this didn't last either as it coincided with a dry spell, which thinned the surrounding foliage causing them to abandon again.

However, the Blue Tits fleged and began crashing into bushes all over the garden, which provided some distraction!!!:D

Thanks again,

Jack