Our Baby Birds Have Flown Away!!!


Well this past week we said good bye to our adopted family of Robins. It was sad to see them go, but what a fun time we had watching them while they were around. Seeing the process as a family has been a great learning experience. The nest building, the eggs, the babies hatching, then growing up, and finally flying away. I never expected to get so attached to them.
I looked online to find more information about robins and found that female robins will generally build 2 nests (broods) in a season. I also found that both parents feed the nestlings earthworms,insects and berries...I actually witnessed this! The male will end up doing most of the feeding about the 5th day after the eggs have hatched. It was also fun to watch the babies develop and grow their feathers, and open their eyes. It takes about 14 days for the baby birds to be ready to leave the nest. During those 14 or so days, they do some RAPID growth and development!
Mike frequently stood up on a stool to see how all the birds were doing. Each time he did, he was amazed to see how much they had changed, how big they got. He and the girls were outside doing one of their "checks" on the babies when two of them took off flying! He and the girls followed (with camera in hand) to watch the young birds test their wings, and experience life outside the nest.The first two birds barely flew out of the nest. It was more of a fall and glide than a fly. We tracked them all over our front yard and into the neighbor's yard.The two young birds were so fun to watch, just like watching a tiny baby experience grass for the first time...unsure of what they're standing on, or their surroundings. We knew that the 3rd little bird would not be far behind, so we kept a pretty diligent watch over it. The next morning as the girls were getting ready to head out the door to school, I saw the last little baby stretching each wing and legs. I got such a kick out of watching it!Mike and I both thought it was just trying to work up that little bit of courage. It hopped in the nest...it stretched it's left wing...then it's right...then took a good look down...and bounced some more. It even walked down the edge of the nest, and looked as if it might fly away at any time...until it kind of lost it's footing. Then it scrambled back into the nest. That was actually kind of funny :) Both Mike and I were running late for our morning, but we knew that if we went in the house and off to work etc., that we'd miss the last one fly away. So, Mike climbed up on the stool and I guess intimidated the baby into flying. It was a good strong flier too! This one flew straight to the tree branch and stuck the landing like it was a pro. (much better than the two other siblings!)
So, now we have an empty nest to look at, and remember. We hope you've enjoyed watching the robins as much as we have. There were a few things I found extremely interesting, but didn't want to mention them here, like...How do they keep their nest clean? Well I found out by watching, and in my reading online (at the following link)just how they keep it so clean. I'll let you read and discover that one!!!


American Robin FAQs