Up-close robin nature study
For as long as I can remember, I have watched birds, read about birds, and watched documentaries about birds. I made my first bird list when I was twelve as I spent hours poring over a 1982 edition of the Reader’s Digest North American Wildlife guide. I still own that book, though it’s looking rather rough nowadays.
I still have that first list I made of birds I identified around my house: “Birds on our land.”
Up-close robin study.
In all my years of studying, I’ve never learned as much as I have observing these robins the past few weeks as they’ve built their nest, laid eggs, hatched, and as the pair has been feeding their four babies.
We’ve found so much information on robins in the Handbook of Nature Study. I read parts of it aloud to the family, and we were amazed that each baby bird can eat 68 earthworms a day! Can you imagine how much work that is for the parents? We have watched them taking turns, coming back and forth stuffing those little orange mouths all day long.
I knew that some birds keep their nests clean by taking away the babies’ droppings. House finches (that built on our front door wreath a few years ago) do NOT and it’s a disgusting mess after a few weeks! But robins do carry the droppings away. They must’ve done this with the egg shells, too, since we never saw them.
I took the photo below when the babies were about four days old. You can see Daddy Robin giving me the evil eye for getting close.
About one week after they hatched, the babies’ eyes had opened (this happens between day 6 and 8, according to the HNS book), and they had developed pin feathers, which are the beginnings of real feathers that replace the downy fuzz:
Notice the one on the far right: its eyes are not open and it’s head has no feathers. It’s also smaller than the others. We were concerned about what we considered the “runt” of the brood. I think it hatched a day later than the others, and it is clearly developmentally behind the others.
I said before that this was an up-close nature study because it’s right on our back porch, but today it got even more up-close!
When I went out to water our veggie garden this morning, I noticed a baby bird on the ground! I feared it was dead, but when I picked it up, it started moving, raised it’s head, and opened it’s mouth wanting me to feed it. I took that as a good sign. But I’m not a mama robin, and I can’t quickly find worms. I thought at first that it was our little runt, but it had feathers on it’s head and it’s eyes were open.
So I handed the baby to Kathryn, and ran inside to quickly research what to do. Was that old saying about the adults ignoring them if they’ve been touched actually true?!? According to what I found, it is only a myth, as birds have very little sense of smell and their instinct to care for their babies is very strong. (See this link on “Wild Bird Watching” about caring for baby birds.)
Back to the nest, baby robin!
Before I climbed up the ladder (thankfully already nearby) to place the baby back in the nest, I took one quick photo. Kathryn has been saying how cute they are and how she wished she could hold one, but didn’t think it would happen. We didn’t want a baby to fall out, but I wasn’t missing this rare chance to snap a photo.
We said a little prayer for the baby bird, and I reminded myself (out loud) that God watches even the little birds, and He’d do what was best — whatever that is. I know that in the great big scheme of things, one baby robin living or dying doesn’t matter much. But I care, and my girls care. So we were rooting for that little baby to make it.
Once I’d wedged the baby back in the nest, I climbed down and we went inside to watch through the window. Almost immediately, mama robin, and then daddy robin came to feed the babies. No worries about the babies being rejected because we’d touched one.
But they were so crammed in there, and every few minutes they’d flap and stretch and almost fall out. We spent the rest of the day as nervous robin-watchers. We only saw three babies, but we wondered:
What had happened to the fourth baby robin?
I feared the fourth was dead and under the others. After looking at photos again, I knew it wasn’t the one I’d returned to the nest because that one had feathers. I worried: what if it began to decay and made the remaining three sick? Would they push it’s body out of the nest?
So we kept watching.
That evening, I saw the mama come to feed the babies, and then begin pulling on something. She pulled the dead baby out of the nest, and with it in her beak, she flew across the yard to dispose of it away from the nest. I’m assuming this is so it would not attract predators like it would if it was directly below the nest. I was amazed she carried it so far when it was so heavy compared to her size.
I peeked at it and verified that it was the runt baby, and not the one that had fallen out that morning.
The loss of one of our babies is sad, but we are learning so very much — and we continue to root for the remaining three and will keep watching as they should start learning to fly next week.
(Read Part 1 of our Robin Nature Study here: Robin Nest & Babies)
Wife, mom, J-ma. Introvert who enjoys good books, sunshine, and authentic conversation. Often seen with a steaming mug of tea in hand – unless it’s lost yet again in the microwave. Read more »
What a lovely story. Your daughter will never forget the day she actually got to hold a baby robin in her hands.
Aw, the poor little runt baby. How cool, though, that you are getting such an up-close-and-personal nature study! Thank you for sharing all the gorgeous photos and information on your blog. It’s nice to be able to live (and learn!) vicariously through you.
Poor baby that didn’t make it. But very cool that you are getting to experience this! Getting up close and personal with nature can be fun (most of the time! ;))
Thanks, too, for commenting on my blog! Prayers are always appreciated. 🙂
I love seeing your list from your childhood…you had quite a list going!
Your robin story is fascinating and we have had nests that we watched and it is better than any movie you could imagine since this is real life and death.
Thank you for sharing your little babies, hopefully they will all grow and leave the nest.
Oh I’m so enjoying all the details of your story. You tell it so well – felt like I was right there!
We have had baby bird drama around here too..Two Blue Jay babies in as many nights. But I have learned the difference in a fledging and nestling. Ours were nestlings — so best thing to do was get the cats inside and let mama and daddy watch from a far. Sorry for the baby — but how wonderful to get a ring-side seat for the show.
I am glad that you posted today and led me to your new blog. As always your post is full of caring for life and faith. I have missed you. I have thought of you many times and wished you the best. John and I were in a terrible car accident on March 25 and almost killed. We know we are only alive by the grace of God and His angels protecting us. I have 16 broken bones and spent 6 weeks in the hospital, 3 of which were in ICU and PCU. I am now home having home nursing… Read more »
Amazing!
Wow! What an amazing opportunity to see some of God’s sweet creatures up close. Beautiful images of the nest and babies. I really enjoyed reading these posts.
Thanks for visiting my blog and commenting on our bird nest study. We had a follow up post too. We determined that the nest wasn’t one belonging to a robin at all. You can read about it here, http://serena-castingpearls.blogspot.com/2011/07/bird-nest-update.html
I found this post because i wanted to know what would happen if there was a dead baby in the nest. every year we have robins make a nest outside of our kitchen window and it’s a joy to watch the whole process and is always sad to see the last little one leave the nest knowing we have to wait a year until it happens again. They are only four feet away from where we stand at the kitchen sink, but the mom and dad get used to us and they watch us too. I like to think we… Read more »
Glad it was helpful, Julie! We sure learned a lot watching them. We had another nest this year, but (as far as we know) all the babies survived this time around.
Thank you for posting. I had ran a search to find out where the dead robin babies went. I just wanted to add that the smallest one isn’t a runt really, the female robin lays four eggs, each one day apart and they hatch four days apart as well. They even leave the nest each one day apart depending on their birth order.
This was helpful…we also have nests on barn and house we watch. We even installed “Robin cams” so we could watch them remotely. This year in a 24 hour period one of the nest has dropped 3 baby Robins. At first we assumed they fell……but 3??? I think mom is tossing them out:(
Thank you for the story about the dead baby. I, too, saw a runt in the nest and was wondering where it was when the other 3 were later poking their heads over the rim, and nothing else was moving. I guess mama took this dead baby away also.
I saw a runt in the wreath nest and wondered where it was when the other 3 were poking their heads over the rim. I guess it died and mama took it away. Thanks.
We had a Robins nest with 3 babies in it. Always saw the mama bird with them. They were only a week old. My husband noticed that they had died in the nest. We are wondering why this would happen? This is the first time we had a nest in our bush by our house. Thank you.
So sorry sad fact death among Robin’s are very common I hand raise three now ( wild life rehabilitater and there’s only one left! It’s a sad fact but true
How far did the mama carry away the dead baby? Did she dispose of it in your yard? Buried or covered? I ask because I had 4 babies, today is day 11 since first 2 hatched. Last hatched 2 days later. This morning 1 was missing. I’m hoping a predator didn’t get it. I’d feel better if I could find it in the yard somewhere. Thanks.
She took it to the very back of our yard, which was pretty far considering the size of a robin.
Hi Jamie, Thanks for replying so quickly. I was pleasantly surprised given you post is 9 years old. I actually found it – across the yard like yours, under the mamas branch. I feel much better that it wasn’t taken by a predator.