Hello everyone,
I have a couple of Robins in my back garden, who come down to breakfast everymoring. One is a very good looking younger robin and one looks llike a rather tatty older robin, with a slightly balding head and only one tail feather...poor boy. All through the winter the younger Robin has been feeding the older one, which I found a bit strange. The older one acts like a chick and the younger one consequently feeds it. Is this normal?
Hello Hilary, welcome to the forum. I suspect that what you have witnessed is in fact courtship feeding. The younger looking Robin might well be a first year male and the older bird a female who has possibly returned from Winter migration. My Robins are currently doing the same thing. Little HTR (the male) is a first year Robin and his mate is at least a year older. Hopefully your pair will provide you with some offspring in a month or so.
Check out this link for some photos