Baby Robins!

I found a robin’s nest in my front yard! It has four eggs, and I named the mama bird Penny. 

A day later, I found this robin egg on the ground. Candling the egg revealed that it had an embryo inside. I put it in my incubator for the night, then remembered Penny: I needed her off the nest so I could sneak the egg into it, but when I checked she was standing guard.

This is where I found the robin egg.

I got a surprise when I visited the nest the next morning: Penny was gone, exposing that two of her eggs had hatched! I named the chicks Timmy and Frank, then placed the abandoned egg in the nest and got away just as Penny returned with food for her chicks. 

Later I realized that in my photo, I had unknowingly captured one of the eggs (not the abandoned egg) in the process of hatching. So, I named him Popi.

This is what I caught on video from a camera I set up:

When I checked the nest again, the abandoned egg finally hatched! I named him Dodo. It looks like he’s in a very uncomfortable position!

I’m embarrassed to say it took me this long to realize that the fourth egg in Penny’s nest was missing. When I put Dodo in the nest, there were only three eggs.

Another thought that occurred to me was Dodo must have fallen from the tree the same day I found him, because the egg wouldn’t have survived otherwise. It is also strange that Dodo was developing in sync with the other eggs, not to mention the fact his egg didn’t crack when it fell from the tree. So, is it possible that Dodo is the missing fourth egg?

These are our birdies a week later. How did they get so big?

I checked on the nest one afternoon, and one of the chicks jumped out of the nest! I learned this is called forced fledging. A bird fledges when it leaves the nest, but forced fledging occurs when the chick thinks it will be safer outside the nest then in and fledges earlier than normal. But don’t worry! A chick that has forced fledged has the same chances of survival as any other chick. Who do you think left the nest? Check out this link for more details: https://toughlittlebirds.com 

I checked the next day and there was only one baby left in the nest! I assume it is Dodo because he was the last to hatch.