American Robin

by Sanjeev Rohailla
(Toronto,Ontario,Canada)

Few days back, say about a week back, I saw this bird trying to build a nest on my mailbox right outside the door on the wall.

There was lot of mess of long grass all over so I kept cleaning the grass away and every day again lot of grass on top of my mail box.

Then I decided and thought "lets see what are they up to". The next day to my surprise I see a nice round nest built up of that grass with lot of wet soil lining inside as if some one was building a nice solid well. It was so perfect round nest that I told my wife how could this bird make so round at the top amazing!

So they made this nest, and then next day they both male and female started bringing in some soft grass - I wondered where they got it from, really soft and lined it inside. The wet soil dried out and made the nest really hard like a shell and with this soft grass inside it was so much nicer.

Today May 11, and this morning she laid an egg, light blue sky like colour. I was so thrilled, sent email to my wife at work letting her know we have a chick coming soon,it feels like it's happening in our family.

My mail man saw that too and now started delivering mail behind our door so that nest doesn't get disturbed.

If anyone reading this can advise should I leave some feed and what kind for the mother and the male, not sure who is hatching sitting in the nest but every time we come out they fly away. So I watch them from my window.

It is so beautiful, God has created this universe and given every living thing a brain to make a house and family in their own way. The picture with shades is taken from my living room window.

Does anyone know how long will it take for the chick to come out and will the female lay more eggs in the same nest. Also should I leave the nest there or try to move it to much safer place.

I was thinking of using a hanging flower basket of course without flowers just soil and putting the nest on it and hang it above the same spot. any suggestions.

Thank you so much for your lovely report about your American Robin.

Possibly, by now, your female Robin has laid more eggs in the nest. They start to sit on them to hatch them, once they have laid four or five eggs. It takes about two weeks for the eggs to hatch.

I wouldn't move the nest, the parents may not come back if you do that, and it is quite common for Robins to build nests on mail boxes and porch lights - we have one who does that every year!

You don't need to feed the parents as they eat worms and things that they find themselves - you don't often see Robins at the bird-feeder as they like food other than seeds and nuts.

Good luck with your babies - please write to us again and let us know how the birds are doing!