Baby Robins

So, I have a story to tell.

About a month to six weeks ago I noticed a couple of robins out my kitchen window.  They had begun building a nest in the unfinished rafters of my unfinished deck.  I was concerned that they would lay their eggs and then my contractor would need to put up the soffit up but then I came to my senses and realized ...that wasn't going to happen any time soon.  Sure enough, it looks the same as it did last fall when it was built.  Anyway!  I digress...

These are about a week old.  The mother and the father feed them about every five or ten minutes.

The robins did lay their eggs and I enjoyed watching them take care of them.  Then, one day I noticed that the mother robin was just standing on the edge of the nest looking down.  She stood there for quite some time.  I realized that her eggs must be hatching.  It wasn't long before both mother and father were keeping busy finding food for them.  There was always activity going on up there.

I thought it was cool how they stuck their beaks up in the air so that they were a little camouflaged to look like sticks poking up out of the nest.

Four hungry little babies!

As the babies grew, I could see four little beaks poking up out of the nest.  That made me a little concerned because I knew that that little nest was not going to hold all four of them for long.  Baby robins are only in their nest for about two weeks and in that time there is a lot of growing.

One morning I had been watching them and saw that the nest was overflowing.  I knew that the time to fly the nest was coming up within the next few days.  My biggest concern was that one would fall out and get eaten by the neighbors cat before it even had a chance.  So, I decided to stick a box up there just for emergencies.

These little ones are only about two weeks old and ready to leave the nest whether I thought they were big enough or not!

The morning I decided to do this, it was about 7:30 a.m.  I climbed up the ladder and found that one of the babies had already left the nest.  I searched and searched to see if I could find it but it was gone.  Then, the coolest thing happened.

It was quite normal for the parents to feed the babies and then reach back behind them and pick up one of their little white poops.  They did really good at keeping the nest clean.  But this particular morning, the mother was up there and it was like she was digging for that elusive poop and just couldn't get it!  As she was fishing around back there, the babies kept getting edged further and further toward the edge of the nest.  At that time, I was really glad that I had put that box up there!  Before you knew it, all three little birds were out on the ledge.  I remembered a thing I had heard years ago about birds fixing the nest so that the sticks and stuff poked up and made the nest uncomfortable for the babies.  This urged them out of the nest!

The first little robin sat on the edge for about ten minutes (I thought the title on the box was appropriate).

As the day continued, I watched as each baby would take their turn leaving the ledge.  The mother bird was in full action now.  She would fly to the beam near them with her mouth full of juicy worms and then she would fly away!  I realized that she was coaxing them out of the nest and down to the ground!  One at a time they would hop (or fall) off of the beam down into the box I'd hung and then they would hop on to the ledge of the box.  They would just sit there.  Then, at their mother's prodding, they would take the leap and fly (fall?) to the ground.  The mother promptly filled their mouth with worms and then hopped off about four feet.  The baby would follow and the mother would give it some more food!  Eventually, the mother lead the baby out of sight.

The first (that I witnessed) flies the coop.  The other two are still standing on the beam.  I assumed that the first one had flown earlier in the morning before I got the box up.

Before long she returned to tempt another baby down to the ground and the process continued.  The amazing part was that the babies would wait until she came back before taking the leap!  She would fill it's mouth every time it followed her.  I watched as each bird was lead to a different part of the yard.  The first little bird went over across the fence into some tall grass.  The second followed it's father back behind the shed at the back of the yard.  The third followed it's father to the front yard.  And, they never came back.

Mother and baby heading back to the tall grass beyond the fence.

I thought the whole process was BRILLIANT!  The parents spent every waking hour taking care of those little babies until it was time for them to leave.  Then, they made the home a little uncomfortable for the babies to continue living there and working their parents to death.  Then they gently coaxed them down to the ground, continued to care and feed them, and guided them to different parts of the yard where they hoped that they would survive.  If they would have taken them all to the same spot, one cat could have had a hay day of a meal.  It was amazing.

A few days later, I ran across one of the babies.  It was the one that had been taken back behind the shed.  I was amazed that he was still alive with all the cats that we have around here but there he was!  I wonder how the other babies are doing and if they are flying on their own yet.  It surprised me how short the time was from hatching to flying as well as how wise those parents were in taking care of their babies.