I have a friend who owns his own greenhouse out here in the country. He always has critters hanging around (ducks, different varieties of chickens and roosters, etc), and he incubates eggs of all types. Most recently he hatched button quail (tiny little buggers) and ducks, and his parakeets just hatched a new clutch (even to a mother, them's some ugly babies.) It's fascinating to be around. He said that when his daughter (now in college) was a little girl and he would read the farmhouse storybooks to her, she was throwing the BS flag on the drawings because they drew curled tail feathers on Momma Duck, and she knew that only the males have curly tail feathers. (Not all males have curly tail feathers, and some males lose their curl feathers, but no females have curly tail feathers.) Regarding your robins...I just read that the average lifespan in the wild is 5-6 years, while the oldest verified (as of Feb 2001) was a banded one they were tracking that lived to be 13 years 11 months!!! This was just northeast of DC in Bowie, Maryland. Crazy, huh?
Not to hijack your thread, but here's a summary of a robin's lifespan: Q. How long do robins live? A. Most robins die their first year. But the lifespan goes up dramatically for the ones that survive that critical time, because they’ve learned so many important life skills. Of those that survive their first year, most wild robins live to be about 5 or 6. As of February, 2001, the longest-living banded wild robin ever recorded had survived 13 years and 11 months, according to the Bird Banding Laboratory at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. In captivity, robins have survived longer than 17 years. Q. How old are robins when they mate? A. Almost one year old. Robins are mature adults and ready to breed in the spring that follows the spring or summer they were born. Q. Do robins mate for life? A. No, robins do not mate for life. Pairs usually remain together during an entire breeding season, which can involve two or three nestings. However, in spring, sometimes a male and female who mated the previous year will both return to the same territory and end up together for another year. This happens most frequently when they were successful raising babies the previous year. Q. How long do robins stay in the egg? (egg stage) A. About 12-14 days after the last egg was laid. (Robins lay one egg per day, for a total of 5-6 eggs in a clutch.) Q. How long do robin babies stay in the nest (nestling stage)? A. Baby robins jump from their nest when they are about 13 days old (but the range is 9 - 16 days old). Q. When do young robins learn to fly? (fledgling stage) A. After leaving the nest (fledging), it takes another 10-15 days for babies to become strong fliers and independent birds.
I love birds. They're just so darned free. The first few years I was here, I had lots of different bird feeders set up across my property, along with a book where I checked off each species I spotted. I was working outside today and had one singing it's head off, pacing back and forth along the peak of the garage roof for the longest time. Regarding robins: I had no idea that any bird had several different nestings. I kinda figured they were One & Done.
@Von Jones Better birds than squirrels! Looking forward to the photos. I am still trying to figure out why a bat fell out of my tree right in front of my mower yesterday. I couldn't stop fast enough, so a bit of a disgusting situation to clean up. I have never had bats in my tree or around my house. What puzzles me is why the bat was in my tree in the heat of the day and why it fell out. I handled it all like it was a rabies situation.
There was a robin at our house in Ohio once that had a broken leg. It turned out at almost a right angle, so you couldn't miss it. It came back the following year. Tough little bird to last even 2 years. (Sorry, more hijacking)
So I grabbed a chair on the front porch when mama/papa Robin flew away and with phone in hand positioned it for the following shots. The hatchings are no longer bare skinned. The flashes must have startled them as I attempted to take blind shots of the nest. No I think it's feeding time. They are not chirping just yet... but it's coming.
Okay, a close up of the hacklings since April 26. Tell me who has been eating good, chubby little ones, eh? Still not chirping yet. ***************************************** So while I'm doing my photo shoot I spy mama/papa on the roof next door. Not very happy from the sounds of it. The two of them were chirping up a storm back anf forth until I finally stepped down from the chair I was using to take the pictures. If you look closely I think you can see something more likely lunch for the hatchlings in the photo below.