Robination

I haven't been keeping you up-to-date on the robins.

There were several moments of near excitement around breakfast on Friday: both robins were out and about in the garden, and then both flew in under the glass roof of the side passage, the male to take up a position on a plant hanger outside the kitchen door while the female perched on the edge of the nest, looking down into it as though expecting something to happen. Were we about to witness the first chick(s) hatching out? It seemed not: after a couple of minutes, the female resumed her place in the nest -- but the male stayed, which was not his normal behaviour: up to then, he had merely delivered food for the female, but then flew off to spend the day elsewhere. Presumably this new "guarding" behaviour was a cued response to something happening inside the eggs: a change in their smell, perhaps? The gentle tapping of a beak from within the shell? Even a faint cheep?

The weekend was quiet. Then, late yesterday morning, there was a flurry of robin activity, with the female bobbing up and down on the nest and the male flying in to take up "guard" positions around her. This went on for some time, with both of them repeating Friday's action of standing on the edge of the nest looking down into it; there would then be a lull, with the female settling down again and the male flying off to (presumably) forage for insects.

Around 12.30, however, the female seemed to have lifted herself in the nest, and was poking her head down into it -- checking on an egg? Listening for sounds? Helping a chick to be born? Perhaps all three; then her head came back up with a large piece of shell in her beak, which she then swallowed (clearly to help replace the calcium lost to make the egg in the first place). Then the male was back, with a beakful of insect grubs -- the female tilted her head back and opened her beak, evidently expecting that they were for her, but the male ignored her; he was looking past her, down into the nest itself. She moved aside, and he leaned down to give the newly-hatched chick, still invisible to us in the depths off the nest, its first meal.

This behaviour, with the female raising herself in the nest to look down at its contents and the male flying in with food, continued for the next few hours. We only saw one other instance of eggshell consumption by the female, around 1.30pm, so we either missed all the others (and therefore don't know exactly how many chicks are in the nest -- four to six eggs is the normal clutch size) or what we saw was the hatching of the first pair of eggs, laid on Friday 14 March, with the rest to hatch today and tomorrow. However, there have been no further signs of chicks hatching, so they must all have hatched yesterday. Both parents have been actively gathering insect provender for them, although the female spends more time on the nest, doubtless to keep the chicks warm -- they are born naked, according to the RSPB, but start to develop feathers three days later. This means that the male is also bringing in food for the female, who eats some of it but also passes it down into the nest to the chicks.

Below is a selection of photographs from yesterday and today, showing the male perched on a pant hanger outside the kitchen door; the male passing a grub to the female; a close-up of the female on the nest; and the female feeding the chicks. The fourth is not the clearest, but if you look carefully below the female (click on the image to open it, enlarged, in a new window) the rhomboid shape of an open beak and the white tuft above it that guides the parent bird in are just visible.