It’s late spring in North America, and across the continent baby or fledgling robins are dropping out of their nests. This seems a strange way to propogate the species, but for generations adult robins have been giving fledglings a boot. They can fly a few feet, but spend most of their time on the ground.
People are always concerned that this baby bird has fallen out of its nest and needs help. The truth is he was pushed out of the nest to get on with the business of growing up. DO NOT PICK THEM UP. Don’t take them to a zoo or wildlife rehab centre.
Baby or fledgling robin
It may seem cruel to us, but this is the way robins conduct their family life, and judging by the number of robins in the country, it works. The best thing for you to do is keep dogs and cats away while the youngster gets his bearings. He’ll move along in a little while.
Baby robins look something like their parents, but have speckled chests, and fluffy down feathers poking out here and there. Yes he looks helpless, but they manage to survive in huge numbers.
Just think of them as the true image of spring, and keep the dogs and cats away. Use their presence in your yard as an opportunity for a nature talk to the kids, which will be a lot more help to the birds!
If there are still small babies on the deck, it is likely the adults will fly at you when you go out there. If the babies were flying and chirping at you, chances are they were close to leaving the nest and would soon be on the ground anyway. If you keep an eye on that location next year, take down the nest in its early stages, and you may have to do it a couple of times. If you keep removing it, the robins will not go to all the work to make a complete nest, and will find another location.
Hello,
A robin made a nest upabove a light on our deck. The babies are hatched and she has been feeding them. Today I went out and seen all three babbys heads where looking up and i took a pictuer. I got a bit closer and boom they all started flying and chirping, one landed on the deck by me and i don’t know where it went. the mother and another robin (DAD?) where flying around, I see one back in the nest but am afraid to go back out , that they will attack me? I fell so bad this happened, I just want to see if they are all up there in there nest. If I see a bird making a nest again next year and keep taking it down, will I stress the bird to make it go some where else?
A lesson learned, leave the birds alone.
Patty
The fact that the chirping noises stopped just means the babies left the nest. Once they’re on the ground, they don’t want to alert predators to their position, so remain silent. Mom will feed the fledglings until they are able to fly and feed for themselves. And she seems to find them where ever they go!
We have a nest outside our house and 13 days went by and all have have left I heard them churping for mom and dad the first day but have not heard any since I hope that doesn’t mean that they all starved because I will feel horrible How long does mom take care of fledglings and if she doesn’t feed them do they know enough to feed themselves? Does mom usually find them?