For the past few years weve had a pair of robins nest in our garden, and usually they come, we find the nest and leave them alone and we dont see much off them until we find the nest empty.
However this time (i dont know if these are the same robins) but they have came again and made a nest and had 3 chicks which we saw in a nest. We originally had concerns as we thought the nest was too low and after about a week and a few days our fears were confirmed as we woke this morning and found 1 dead chick on the floor underneath the nest :(. We took the body away and originally thought all 3 were dead however later this morning 1 chick just jumped right infront of us:
We havnt seen another chick so we presume this one was the only one to survive, however it cannot fly yet and weve been watching it jump around the garden attempting to fly with the aid of his parents (as we dont want to interveen).
Does anyone know if he will be able to fly in time to avoid any more dangers and survive?
And if we can do anything in the future to help the robins e.g. buy a bird house?
Hello migitmike,
Touch and go really. It depends on how old the chick is. Robins usually fledge at 14-16 days old, but this one (at least as far as I can guess from the photo) looks a day or two short. Keep a water pistol handy if a cat comes near; a nice, non-harmful way of discouraging it. If the chick is in real danger, put it in a bush or tree out of harms way. It'll call frequently for food, and if it receives enough, will be on the wing within, as I say, a day or two.
It really is best, however, to avoid any interference. Many young birds leave the nest before they can fly properly, and, of course, mortality is very high in the first few days.
Hope this helps,
MC:-)
Oh yes, nestboxes by all means:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/helpingbirds/nestboxes/smallbirds/index.asp
Robin chicks often leave the nest before they can fly so this is not really unusual, it is a defence strategy used by several birds should the nest be disturbed by a predator - the chicks flee and find their own little places to hide in making it more difficult for a predator to find all the chicks in a brood. As long as the parents are still looking after the chick it is best to just leave it.
Millie & Fly the Border Collies
Thankyou to you both for your advice, the parents were looking after it constantly yesterday trying to get it to fly, as it got dark i think the chick did get scared as it tried to run into the house but just kept on jumping into the lounge window. I kept my eye out for cats as long as could but i did not interveen and i did not see any anyway. However this morning i woke and there was no robin chick alive or dead in the garden and no parents either so this i think either means sadly the cat returned or the chick is still hiding or the chick learned to fly.