Will house finches abandon a nest that fills with snow?

Question

I had a pair of house finches build a nest in some hedges outside my window. It looked pretty much complete, but ten days ago we had a severe snowstorm that dropped a foot of snow on the yard. Despite being protected by eaves, the nest ended up full of snow. Since then, aside from seeing the male around a couple of times, the birds have not returned to it.

Assuming the female is still alive, is it likely for the birds to return to the nest after such a long time away? Would they be likely to abandon it, after spending 10-14 days building it, due to the snowstorm?

Answer 1

Well it doesn’t exactly answer the question, but 7 weeks later they’ve come back to the nest.

According to a few sources I’ve seen, finches typically lay multiple clutches of eggs in a year so it’s likely the first clutch was born somewhere else and they returned to this next for another.

It’s also common for finches to reuse nest sites from one year to the next, so with a lifespan of a decade there’s a good chance they’ll return next year.