Robbins 2005

This is a Robin nest that is in a little shed in the back yard. The picture was taken on April 15, 2005 so we'll have to follow the progress and see if the babies grow into adults. Last year a Robin built a nest in a small tree a few feet from the shed. Since that nest was not in an easily accessible position I didn't get to follow the progress very closely. However I did see four babies heads peaking over the side of the nest when they were about ready to fly. We went away for a few days and when we came back the babies had already left the nest and were flying around the back yard. The babies will sit in the yard while the parents roam around the yard looking for bugs and worms. They will bring dinner back to the baby and drop it on the ground in front of the baby and encourage the baby to pick it up off of the ground. I guess this is how they teach the little ones to look for food on the ground. If a few minutes go by and the baby hasn't picked up the dinner, the parent will pick it up and feed it to the baby. Eventually the little one gets the idea and will start looking around for something to eat on the ground on its own.

I went away for several days and when I got back the Robins eggs had hatched. If you look closely you can see one egg still in the nest under the babies. Since Ann said the first two babies were in the nest on Tuesday and the picture was taken on Friday the remaining egg probably will not hatch. I will check again to see if the remaining egg hatches, but three days after the first two hatched the third one probably just will not make it. Things like that happen in nature. To see a larger image of the babies click on the picture or here. I will try to continue to add pictures of the babies until they leave the nest, and hopefully after they leave the nest. Usually there are a lot of baby birds in our back yard as they learn to fly and find food for themselves.

Well, in trying to get things caught up after my trip I let time get away from me. One evening I went to get something out of the shed where the Robins are and the babies were peaking at me over the rim of the nest, the next afternoon they were gone. In going back over the time for the babies hatching it is possible that they flew that morning while we were working in the garden. Sorry, I wanted to get a picture of the babies just before they flew. If I'm lucky I will be able to get some pictures of the parents teaching the babies how to hunt for food. The third egg did not hatch and after the babies left the nest I removed the egg. The mother bird turned the babies over to the father bird and in a week or so she laid more eggs in the same nest.