Robin Update: No hand-outs in the Avian World!

This story is a couple weeks old now, but that's okay. The first clutch of robins fledged about three weeks ago...or is it four now? Anyway, it was the Monday morning after the garden project painting the wash tubs blue and planting the mint and lemon balm. All day that Sunday, I caught glimpses of the juvenile robins hopping about the yard. On Monday morning when Andrew came home, he looked at the front porch and I greeted him at the front door. When I opened the door he said "look down at the welcome mat," and there, right by my feet was one of the juvenile robins. "Is he hurt?" I asked. We didn't know so I shut the door and got the camera and when I came back he had flown past the door and onto the grape vine tree.

I took several pictures of him, relieved that he could at least fly a bit. But I had to get ready for work. When I was switching laundry out though, I heard this really high pitched insistent chirping. I mean, it was almost ear splitting. So I went out to the front porch with the camera and he had moved on to our planter that is by the nest. He had basically flown as close to the nest as he could without actually going back to the nest and he kept up his high pitched crying.

The parent robins were both nearby in the garden with worms, but they wouldn't go near the juvenile at all. I wondered if he was begging for food but being cut off. Just the day before I had caught the robins refreshing the nest with grasses and ah, working on the next clutch so to speak. So I wrote Cornell, home of the best heron cam ever. If you haven't checked it out go now and see the babies. All five herons are thriving which shows the parents can find plenty of food for five hungry mouths. It's quite amazing to see these birds up close, and hilarious when the babies give the camera and extreme closeup. These nest cams are not only fun to watch, but gives scientists a whole new way to analyze behavior like never before. Below is the correspondence with Cornell, reprinted with their permission. Hi, we had four robins fledge from their front porch nest on Wednesday May 2. This morning, one of the juveniles was perched on one of our garden features just a few feet from the nest. The parents have already started to refurbish for the second clutch. this juvenile, was making very high pitched, insistent chirps. Neither adult robin would approach him or the nest and hovered about the garden at large. He did not appear hurt. Was he begging for food and the adults were trying to wean him off? Thanks Dear Julie, Some kids just don't get the hint! What you suspect is the most likely explanation for this behavior. I have even watched parents chase a youngster who keep coming around to beg for food when they believe that he ought to be feeding himself. We don't like watching that but, from the bird's perspective, it's really important that the youngster learn to fend for himself. I hope you've been watching the nest cams we've got up at our All About Birds website. There's one on a Red-tailed Hawk nest on the Cornell University campus where there are now three little balls of white fluff being fed regularly. They can be viewed at www.allaboutbirds.org/cornellhawks. In addition, four of the five eggs in the Great Blue Heron nest have hatched so the heron parents are being kept busy. They can be viewed at www.allaboutbirds.org/cornellherons. There's so much going on at the Lab that is fascinating. To learn more about some of those activities, sign up for our monthly eNewsletter at www.birds.cornell.edu. I also encourage you to visit our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/cornellbirds, where there is a community of people who are always asking and answering questions about birds. I'm so behind on blogging I haven't posted pictures of the robins right before they made their way into the wide world. Enjoy this series. I won't post pictures of the second robin clutch unless something notable happens.

And last but not least, a parent's work is never done. Here the male rests with a beakful of worms, waiting for me to leave before going to the nest. It's the male because the ring of white around his eyes is not very prominent and his feathers on top of the head give him more of a buzz cut look whereas a female has more of a sleek cap look to the top of her head.