I have this really big ridiculous palm tree in my front yard. I was trimming branches on it yesterday after work. The first branch I cut down had a birds nest with 2 baby birds in it. They weren't hurt. I put plastic bags over my hands and put them back up in the tree and they stayed put for several hours (at least until I went to bed). I saw the parents hanging around the nest area again after a few hours, but this morning the birds are gone. I looked around the base of the tree and in my yard and see nothing. I see no feathers, so I don't think a cat or anything like that got them, and the parents were going nuts when I was around the tree this morning...
Do they even have a chance or did I basically kill them? I know they are just birds but damn...

Don't feel bad, I kill baby birds all the time. Damned pigeons [censored]ting and laying eggs on my apartment's balcony every other week!

If only I could get the parents, but they're too damn fast.

The parents probably didn't take well to having their home transplanted like that.

No idea what happened to the baby birds, but the parents probably moved on after that.

Such is life, I guess.

Change the font back to the default colour I can't see anything

- I'm sure birds are very territorial so because you touched the nest you've left your scent over the babies. The parents probably killed them or dumped them away from the nest.
I always though touching a nest of any bird would cause it, on return, never to go back to that nest because it's been 'breached' so to speak.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fact-or-fiction-birds-abandon-young-at-human-touch
"The fact is, birds don't abandon their young in response to touch, [but] they will abandon [their offspring and their nest] in response to disturbance," explains biologist Thomas E. Martin of the University of Montana and the U.S. Geological Survey.

I guess knocking it out the tree counts as a distrubance

I saw the parents this morning! They were chirping at me as I approached the tree.

Awwww, that is a bummer. I would have felt bad too, but it was an honest mistake, not something done out of maliciousness or anything. Next time you know to check the area before cutting I guess.

If it's any help, there are only a small percentage of baby birds that would make it into advlthood... the two may have been picked off by some other predator and that could have happened even without your inadvertant interference.

But atleast they could have made it to their next birthday worm

Then where are the birds then? They are nowhere to be found this morning, but I saw the parents chirping at my from my roof. Same birds I saw when it happened.

You should have known that touching baby birds will be the end of them*. Their own parents might have killed them (happened a few times for my birds) or they were killed by something else.

* EDIT; or at least destroying their home.

That's a i bit of a downer, but the only other thing I think you could have done was ring the RSPCA, and even then there isn't much they could do.

Touching baby birds is not the end of them. It's a wives tale. Plus I had platic bags over my hands.

There are a few species (sunbirds mostly) that abandon their eggs/hatchlings if you even just touch the nest, not sure why but my personal theory is that it is to combat cuckoos, i'm probably wrong though.

If you can access the nest, then you can access the bird. It's a defense mechanism I believe, like if someone broke into your house and damaged the property* you'd move out and find a safer area to live.

*In this scenario the house is like a basin and there is no security measures at all besides putting yourself "x" feet off the ground.

They don't always abandon them, there was link earlier saying that, and I've done the same thing of handling nests when cutting down a tree, when I felt there was eggs in it, I left it, they didn't leave them. My Dad has done it with hatchlings as well, it depends on the species. Chances are, if there is no evidence they've died, they've moved.