Disappearing Robins - Magpies to blame?

My robins are also skulking about out of sight - it's normal for this time of year and magpies and corvids in general are more obvious as they live in family groups and have naughty, noisy youngsters - hopefully they will disperse out into the the wider countryside - it's another reason not to feed through the summer months as it encourages the larger birds to move away rather than devise ways of breaking into or flying off with feeders

Hello and welcome to the forum Christina, and probably more important, you might want to consider changing your user name from your email, because content on the forum is visible to the world, and I'm sure you don't want to become victim to spam.

I felt the same, the robin's disappearing acts, and currently here, we're only seeing juvenile robins, whereas magpies tend to stick around irrespective, nor do they migrate. Magpies are often the aggressors, not just from a territorial perspective, or food, but they too will have young and as any parent will, they also will be very protective toward their young.

I have video somewhere of a magpie challenging a cat in our garden, so they don't hold back.

As already said, it is normal for robins to disappear and nothing really to worry about.

One other thing, keep watching the magpies, not from the aggression perspective, but how they look after their young, how the young play, and the young will be almost adult size now, but more fascinating, is the young will still want the parents to feed them.

Lookout for rapid flapping of wings from the youngster when another magpie, often one of the parents, to be fed, and then the parent will place food into the open beak of the youngster.

Unknown said:

Thank you all! This is very reassuring!

Thanks also Mike for the tip to take off the e-mail address!

I love all the birds in the back green and am working on my understanding of them.
Just glad we have them.

Lots of swifts here too - hooray!

All the best and thanks again, Chrissy

You're welcome.

We never stop learning, there is always something new to learn and discover.

Being one of those strange birders who keep lists of everything they see I had a check back on our garden records for the past years. It seems that our Robins,we have two breeding pairs, vanish for some weeks once their brood have fledged. We have always understood that they go deep into the local woodland area to moult in safety and maybe a bit of r & r. This is a lot of our own deduction so may not be scientifically proven but it may answer your query

Hello Chrissy, welcome to the community from up in Cairhness at the very top of Scotland. Hope you enjoy here, we are a fine bunch of folks, a bit mad at times! Always someone at hand to help with any questions. Enjoy