I wouldn't leave them longer than a week since if they crack and have rotted, it might get rather smelly.

saypoint, I have no idea if this link below will help you, but you're not alone in this dilemma. It happens quite often. I agree with NHBabs on the timing of the future removal if the parents have gone for good - for whatever reason.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/i-found-a-nest-with-eggs-in-it-and-no-adult-birds-seem-to-be-attending-to-it-i-think-its-abandoned-or-i-scared-the-parents-away-what-should-i-do/

So yesterday the bird, or a bird, came back. There are now 5 eggs, and she has been sitting there all day, with occasional breaks. The plot thickens.

BBC Springwatch May 10, 2018I just learned on BBC Springwatch via Facebook that a Blue Tit will leave her nest until she’s layed her last egg, can be up to a week. It is to ensure all eggs hatch at the same time and for that bird, to coincide the hatching with the availability of caterpillars. See if this link will work...not sure...but if you are on FB, look for BBC Springwatch, May 10, 2018.

Jane

I just watched that video...so interesting. I’m astonished by the fact that each hatchling will eat about 1,000 caterpillars in its first two weeks! No wonder it seemed like the only thing the mother Robin in the nest under my eaves did all day after her eggs hatched was fly in and out with more food, because that’s exactly what she did...constantly!

A little closure. FIVE babies!!

So sweeeeeeet! Yea!

Wonderful! So glad the ending was happy (so far anyway...) and you were able to post the evidence!

Sad news. I went to check on the babies just now and they are gone, all five of them. Some predator found them, even as sheltered as they were by the front porch roof, and took them. Had to be a bird of some kind, I don’t think there was any way for another animal to get up there.

Very sorry. Nature is such a mystery.

Thanks. I’m guessing crows but can’t say for sure. Will take the nest down so they don’t try to use it again.

So sorry. After a robin disaster of my own a few years ago, I learned that baby robins actually have a pretty small chance of growing up, and robins will have several rounds of eggs/babies in a season to deal with this.

Thanks. Yes, I read somewhere that 80% of them don’t make it, but it was a bit of a shock to have all five disappear so suddenly. There’s another family of birds in one of my birdhouses. Not sure what kind, they’re small, but I didn’t get a good look. Oh, well.