At this time of year we have loads of baby birds in the garden. On the suet feeders we have baby tits of all kinds and on the ground we have baby dunnocks and baby robins. Yesterday I got up close to two baby robins. The second one looked too young to have fledged.
Baby robin in the chickens’ strip
It’s quite young as it has hardly any tail yet.
Closer
A bit of a drama followed. You can see Ebony taking an interest in the baby robin. After I had taken this photo the baby squeezed through the weld mesh into the chicken run. Oh no! I ran into the chicken run with my leg protector (pan cover) to try to guide the baby out as I know that we mustn’t touch baby birds, as if we put our scent on them, their mothers will abandon them.
Ebony ran towards the baby robin and I shouted “NO”. Baby robin flapped and Ebony ran from the baby and hid in the wooden shelter. What a woos! I am glad of that though and baby robin escaped back through the weld mesh with no help from me needed. Ebony stayed in the shelter for a few minutes which she never does. Just goes to show size means nothing!
The baby robin flew off and the next time I went up the path I saw an even younger baby robin. This one has no head feathers yet and a really baby beak.
Even younger baby robin on the path
Closer
I am a bit concerned that this little guy is too young to be out of it’s nest. There is nothing that we can do though as it’s too young for us to leave food for it and it’s always best not to touch.
A few minutes later it had disappeared. I am not sure if it will survive as there wasn’t any sign of a parent bird around. It’s so sad but there isn’t anything that we can do. I just hope it’s mum found it but I guess we will never know.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
I hate it when the baby birds are fledging – there are so many cats around here!! 🙁 xx
I feel the same as we have lots of cats here too. I haven’t seen the baby robin today so I have no idea what happened to it. Perhaps it’s best not to know. xx
Good job you were there and see the baby go in the run.
Our robin has 5 babies, I spend ages watching her feed them.
But worry as we have a Magpie hanging about.
As it happened Ebony was more afraid of the baby robin than the other way around. I haven’t seen any parent birds which is a bit of a worry for the very young robin I saw.
I think the mortality rate at this stage must be very high; two dead blackbird fledglings in my son’s garden this past few days, a cat certainly responsible for one.
I haven’t seen the very young robin since so I am sure it’s been taken. As there was no sign of any parent birds Richard said that a cat would be quicker than starving so I suppose we have to accept that it’s all part of nature. Still sad though.