Nature Study: Robin Nest & Babies

A few weeks ago, we noticed that a bird was building a nest in our back porch. We guessed at what kind it might be since we hadn’t seen the actual birds in process of building. I had guessed some sort of sparrow, but we soon saw that it was a robin pair who had taken up residence.

robin nest

We looked up information on robins in our favorite little backyard bird handbook, Stokes Beginner’s Guide to Birds: Eastern Region.

Back porch nature study: robin nest & eggs!

We learned that robins make their nests of grass and mud, usually on the limb of a tree or on a building ledge. We found it interesting that our robin pair had made two more starter nests in the porch before they chose their final location.

Once we’d seen that she was sitting on the nest pretty regularly, we climbed up for a peek at her pretty eggs. Robins typically lay 3-7 eggs, and have an incubation time of 12-14 days. And of course, they’re robin’s egg blue!

robin nest with eggs

Yesterday, after much anticipation, we had babies!

Kathryn was the first one to notice that the mama robin brought back a worm and a little head popped up to eat it! We know from watching the house finch nest on our front door a few years ago that these babies will grow FAST!

Newly Hatched Robins

Though right now they don’t even seem to have their eyes open, in about two weeks, these little birdies will be fledglings, and the adult pair will likely have one or two more broods before summer is over. I’m glad my kids don’t grow up that fast!

The girls and I have been talking about how amazing it is that God created birds to know things like where and how to build nests, how often they have to sit on their nests to properly incubate the eggs, what and how to feed the babies, and that the babies know to be quiet when mama and dad are away from the nest.

I love that we can enjoy nature study just about any time or place!

(UPDATE: read the dramatic continuation of our study here: Up-close Robin Nature Study)