Kitchen Garden Forum

This is the nest I found in a forgotten bag of weeds etc, propped up against the fence at the back of my plot.

The daddy robin is so tame he sits 2ft away waiting for worms to take to his brood. They are getting bigger and noisier by the day.



Absolutely no sign of the female though, does she hatch them and then clear off?

Aahhhhhh! I thinks that's what the chicks are saying, too!
Vivien

Dear Chantal how do you know it is the male one feeding them and not the female.

It's also funny to have six female chicks in a brood.

Hi Chantal,
I agree with OH 6 is a lot for a Robin as they usually have two broods of 4. At this time both parents will be foraging furiously and the males vivid colours begin to fade. I do hope that both are feeding because if not it does not bode well for that clutch.
JB.

I thought the female didn't have a red breast, am I wrong then?

Having sat and watched the comings and goings I would swear there is just one bird going at the foraging like a maniac. I have never yet seen two robins at the same time and I have only seen a red breasted robin doing the feeding.

How do you know these are all female?

I've been googling robins and found the following; this is part 3 of 4

http://www.bbc.co.uk/stoke/features/200 ... irth.shtml

(links to the other parts are on the left of the page).

It does say that an average clutch is 5 or 6 and the mother does gradually lose interest as she's planning the next brood. This does seem an early desertion though, I'm really worried about them now They were OK this evening though.

Dear Chantal, i was just going by the size of there beaks.

I'm sure they will be just fine.

OH, I'll do for you one day

I was at the allotment this morning and everything was fine. He was in and out of the nest like a fiddlers elbow, he must be exhausted poor bird. I'm still sure he's bringing them up alone but will watch extra carefully over the weekend.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdgui ... /index.asp

I thought so - male and females are both red-breasted. When you see robin-shaped birds that are brownish all over they are babies.

We had a family last year and two babies were regular visitors for worms when digging. They were quite competitive and one actually took a worm from my fingers.

It really slows down the gardening!

I've been watching and listening tonight as I can hear the babies chirping when food arrives. I've seen a robin come out of the nest and I've watched him/her collect more food and go back, time and again, there just isn't two birds. This is a single parent; a damn good one at that.

I know what you mean about slowing you down Jude, I was collecting little worms in a tub and putting them out for collection

All babies present and correct this evening

Dear Chantal, i should think the single parent Robin is the Male, i'm sure if it was the female she would stop between each delivery of food to talk to the sparrow over the fence.

Chantal - do you think that you could leave some meal worms out to help with the feeding. Do you have any bird feeders on the lottie?

I thought about meal worms Catherine, but I have no idea where to get them from, other than mail order by which time they'll have flown

Your time will come OH

You could try a fishing shop. They have worms of all types.
Seedling

Chantal - I have seen meal worms in good garden centres. (In packets)