26 May 2017

On May 23 I saw my neighborhood’s first American robin fledgling of the year.

He’s the same size as his parents but has a speckled chest, almost no tail (his tail hadn’t grown in yet), and a loud voice.  He follows his mother around my backyard.  When she walks three paces, he walks three paces.  He maintains his distance, begging periodically, until she has food in her beak.  Then he rushes her to get it.

In four weeks, around June 20, he’ll become independent.  Meanwhile his mother will build another nest, lay, incubate and hatch another brood.  If she’s quick about it they’ll fledge five weeks after he did, around June 27.

Robins raise two or three broods per year and though only one or two survive per nest it’s enough to keep their population booming.

(photo from Wikimedia Commons. Click on the image to see the original)