Watching Miracles of Nature: Robin Nest Part 2

For a video compilation of this beautiful journey, click here: Watching Miracles of Nature - Robin Nest

To read Part 1, click here: Watching Miracles of Nature - Robin Nest Part 1

Baby robins are helpless at birth: featherless with their eyes close. However, they do know a few basic things to survive. For example, they are always quick to open their mouths as soon as they sense their parents coming!  

The mom and dad took turns and were busy feeding them about every 15 minutes from dawn-to-dusk. I read that together, they both make as many as 100 feeding visits each day. Hunting the area for food and feeding it to the babies is a nonstop cycle, meaning that the parents are busy all day long. The food is usually fed to the hatchings in turns, and so it was super interesting to see that the mom and dad always remembered whose turn it was to be fed next. 

There was even a perfect mysterious coordination between mom and dad to make sure each one was fed fairly! They seemed to eat more and more each day. They ate a variety of food, including insects, grasshoppers, earthworms, berries, and even butterflies! No wonder they were growing big and stronger so fast!

After around a week, we noticed that their eyes opened for the first time. They were constantly peeking out of their nest and observing the new world around them. They also were able to spot their mom and dad from afar, so they would eagerly open their mouths whenever they saw their parents. It was exciting to see changes in the babies every day! They slowly started to grow their gorgeous feathers and try out their wings.   

On the evening of the elder birds 15th day, it seemed to be excited to leave the nest and explore its surroundings. However, it rolled back into the nest after its mom came. After doing some research, I figured that it may be because the mom and nestling must negotiate a time for when it wants to leave the nest.

They both slept with excitement dreaming about exploring the world after they would leave the nest. 

They left in the wee hours of the morning the next day, much earlier than we expected.   

The nest which cradled this beautiful miracle of life and was full of nonstop chirping and activity is now empty. We were so used to these cute temporary backyard residents for almost the entire month that we felt an overwhelming sense of void the first morning when they left. However, we were extremely happy for them to explore the world and we hope that they will remain safe wherever they are. Hopefully, the babies will return next year to lay their eggs under our deck again!