Egg sitting

[JohnP]

I have an unusual situation and was hoping for feed back from members to see if I have a not expected situation or a wierd bird.

One of my birds (either cordon, fire tail, orange breasted or ruddy) has laid eggs in one of the basket nests some weeks ago and I think abandoned them (temps have dropped to -8 here over the recent weeks) but I now find I have a red faced parrot finch cock sitting consistantly on these eggs? Now he may just be feeling the urge as his partner died last spring but I thought I would throw the question out there to see if anyopne else had the same expereience? If he keeps sitting is there an outside cahnce they may actuall hatch or should I just discard the eggs and let him move on?

Thanks.

[Tiaris]

I reckon if it had been up to about a week it would be possible to rear something if they are fertile, but "some weeks" at this time of year may be pushing it. Parrotfinch rearing these other species could pose challenges too but stranger things have happened.

[spanna]

I've had a pair of gouldians raise 2 baby painteds. Whether the nest was abandoned or the gouldians took it over, I don't know, but they hatched fledged with no worries, though one was underfed after fledging. Ended up as a normal painteds, they soon figured out they were adopted

You've got nothing to lose I say! May as well leave them be, but if they had been unattended for a while they may already be dead in shell on the other hand.