Both parents feed the babies. A robin might make 100 feeding visits to its nest each day. There's no time to go far on a food hunt. That's why a good territory is important to robins in spring.
The female builds the nest, though the male often brings her some of the materials. He continues to sing as she lays the eggs and incubates them. When the babies hatch, both the parents get busy feeding them. When the babies fledge (leave the nest), both parents continue to follow them and feed them for a few days.
The mother and father robin will stay close to the fledglings once they leave the nest, but the mother will need to leave them before long to lay another clutch of eggs.
The young are tended by their parents for up to three weeks after fledging. Frequently the care of the fledged young is left to the male, while the female prepares herself for the next nesting effort. Robins have two broods a year. Three successful broods a year is not uncommon, and in a good year even four are known.
Robin eggs
The female incubates the eggs over a two-week period and both parents care for the young. The eggs take around two weeks to hatch and the chicks will fledge when they are about 12 to 14 days old. The female may produce two broods of young each year.
On The Nest
It means all the babies hatch close to the same time. Mother robins may start incubating their eggs during the evening after the second egg is laid, or after all the eggs are laid. They sit on the eggs for 12 to 14 days. The female usually does all the incubating.
In most songbirds, only the female develops a highly vascularized, featherless area on the breast called a brood patch. During incubation, the patch facilitates heat transfer from the body to the eggs or young. Male robins do not develop a brood patch and do not incubate.
A robin's lifespan is just 13 months on average due to high mortality among robins in their first year. Once they've passed that barrier, they stand a much better chance of surviving for quite a while - the record currently stands at 19 years.
While robins might repair or build on top of a previous nest, most of them build a new nest. This is best for many reasons. A used nest is a mess, stretched out and often home to insects or parasites and possibly poop. Take the nest down and the site will be ready for the next robin.
Mother birds only spend a few days sleeping with the babies after they hatch. For the most part, they do not sleep in the nest with their babies unless the temperature is low enough to jeopardize the survival rate of the babies. The young grow feathers quickly and soon are able to retain their own heat.
Remember that the nest is not a bed; it's an incubator and baby cradle, so the robin isn't supposed to be on the nest at night until she has a full clutch of eggs. Until then, she roosts on a branch. Q. Should we try to raise abandoned eggs ourselves?
When fledglings leave their nest they rarely return, so even if you see the nest it's not a good idea to put the bird back in—it will hop right back out. Usually there is no reason to intervene at all beyond putting the bird on a nearby perch out of harm's way and keeping pets indoors.
Both parents feed the babies. A robin might make 100 feeding visits to its nest each day. There's no time to go far on a food hunt. That's why a good territory is important to robins in spring.
Both the male and the female gather nest materials, but usually only the female does the building.
Babies Leave the Nest Before They Are Grown Up
There is no room in the nest for baby birds to stretch and strengthen their wings, and being out of the nest gives them practice foraging and learning their surroundings before they're fully grown. The parent birds do stay nearby to care for their chicks, however.
On average, though, only 40 percent of nests successfully produce young. Only 25 percent of those fledged young survive to November. From that point on, about half of the robins alive in any year will make it to the next.
On average, robins only live a couple of years, but a few reach quite an advanced age. The oldest known wild individual was 11 years 5 months. Mortality is high and its causes are many and varied. Only around 40 per cent of fledged birds will survive from one year to the next.
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.
Males have rust-colored feathers on their chest, a yellow bill, a black head, and white outlines around their eyes. They also have gray wings and backs. Female robins look similar to males, but their colors are much duller and sometimes blend together, making identification difficult.
Once young robins have fledged the nest, they will stay with their parents for up to three weeks. During this time, the fledged young will mostly be taken care of by the male birds - this is because the female will start preparation for the next brood.
Courtship feeding is something of a misnomer. It describes behaviour when a male bird offers food to his mate, but it occurs most frequently when actual courtship is over. Most courtship feeding occurs during egg formation, laying and incubation and can provide a valuable source of nutrients for females.
The babies eat more each day. Soon parents give them whole worms and large insects. Each young robin may eat 14 feet of earthworms in a two- week nest life—and worms are not even their main food!
Generally speaking, the female robin won't usually leave the eggs during incubation for more than 5 to 10 minutes at a time. Male robins are responsible for feeding females during this time, so there is little reason for them to leave the nest.
If you do not see any adults near the nest and there is no progress (no hatched eggs, etc.) after four (or more) weeks, the nest may have been abandoned. For a nest containing young, often nestlings may appear to be abandoned when they are actually not.