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Robin's Nest - Day 3 - 4/23

Today is the third day of this robin building her nest on the elbow of the downspout right outside our kitchen window.  She builds in the mornings.  Afternoons find her at the birdbath, preening, resting, and foraging.  At this point, we are not sure which robin is her mate.  Cleon is the dishwasher in our house and so he will be able to keep an eye on her.  That is if he has time.  Whenever he washes dishes or loads the dishwasher, he blasts his favorite music - everything Motown like Gladys Knight and the Pips and the Temptations, ACDC, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and any hard rock from the '60's and 70's.  In fact, it you ever pass our house and it is rhythmically swaying, you can assume Cleon is washing dishes!

We have lived in this house almost 20 years and for most of these years, we have had a robin's nest right here.  It is the perfect place - morning sun, completely sheltered from wind and rain, and right at our very large front flower garden which is full of easy-to-poke-a-beak-into soil and insects  - perfect for robin foraging.  This does bring up the question - is this robin - or her mate - related to that first pair of robins?  Unfortunately, songbirds do not have long lives and most especially if they migrate.  For a migrating songbird to live 5 years is an accomplishment.  In central Illinois, some robins migrate and some do not.

There is no way for me to know if this robin is related to the original pair.  This would be a prime nesting spot and it could be there was a fight between pairs and this pair won.  Which is probably the most likely scenario.  But I think I will just go on thinking this robin is the latest on the family tree of a long line of robins who will always nest at this spot.

You can see that in 3 days, she has already collected a lot of dried grass and her nest is taking shape.  Notice much of her collected dried material  dangles down - this has always been the case for the robins who build on this curved downspout.  I always think of a robin's nest being tightly and neatly woven and when the nests are in the fork of a tree - with a lot more support - they are.  But this nest is similar to how one would be if it were just on one branch - not at a fork of 2 branches.  There is not as much support and as you can see - her nest ends are not neatly woven in.  Interesting in that the structure on which she chooses to build has so much influence on the appearance of her nest.  Or is this a clue that all the robins that built nests here are related - they share the trait of not being the neatest of nest builders?

You can see her on the nest and right now, she is shaping it by lowering her tummy into the cup of the nest and twisting her body around.  This smooths the inside  of the cup and also compacts the material making it stronger.  Based on the other nests that were built here, she has at least 1 more day of building - the sides will be a bit higher.  It may take her a day to choose and then add whatever she needs to line the nest cup.  Normally it will be moss, lichens, or new leaves.  Sometimes it is fur.  One thing many birds will use is dryer lint.  If you look on the birdfeeder cam on the post that is on the right of your screen, you will see that Cleon was busy this morning.  He and our friend Miles cleaned out our dryer vent - a 2 person job as it requires a ladder and a long 'snake' that is operated by a hand drill.  I collected all the lint, put it in a corn cob holder that is often used for squirrels, and Cleon added it to that post - you will be able to see it hanging.  She may discover it and pull some out.

And speaking of the birdfeeders - is she the robin who was eating seed off the platform feeder most of March?  I don't know.  But if it is her, she will probably not be shy about examining that holder full of lint.  It will be interesting to see if she uses any.

My guess is she is about 2 days away from laying her first egg and it could be longer.  Robins generally keep to a steady schedule once they start building their nests.  Some birds do not.  Tree Swallows are a good example.  They will claim a nest box or hole and then dawdle around for at least a week or two before they do any collecting or building whatsoever.  They will fight to keep the hole, but they are very slow to start a nest.  Once robins make a decision  as to their spot, they get right to work.

Robins generally lay 3-6 eggs with 4 being the average.  On average, 1 egg a day.  She will not start incubating hours at a time until the last egg is laid.  In this way, all the eggs will hatch the same day.  All the youngsters will be the same age and this is important.  Baby birds grow fast and if a baby hatches even 1 day later than another, the older baby will out-compete the younger for food.  And the younger baby can be easily injured or even killed.  So having the babies hatch within hours of each other keeps them at the same size and development.

If you have been watching the birdfeeder cam, you will have observed we have cowbirds - you will have seen mostly males.  But we do have a good number of females.  They do parasitize robin nests so we will have to see what happens here.  As far as I know, no cowbird has ever parasitized the nests in this spot, but there is always a first time.

I will up date this every day or every few days.  I know I speak for all of us that we wish this robin and her mate all the best and that their youngsters are healthy and all successfully fledge.  Linda

P.S.  Please feel free to comment or ask questions about anything I post about this robin and her nest.  And if you would like to tell all of us about a nest you are observing, please click on "Are You Observing Any Nests?", then click on "Tell us ......", click on 'New Topic", and tell us what you are watching.  Post a photo if you can.  Linda

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