This Robin story, to which we don’t know the ending but it could be a sad one, starts with my meeting a friend, another bird photographer, by the cheese cabinet in a local supermarket. She immediately pulled out her mobile phone to show me a picture of a baby Robin. When I asked where she’d seen it she said the photo was taken that afternoon on a local cycle path. This was somewhere that I often walk taking photographs of birds on and by the pond, and an hour later I was there.
At first I went to see the new cygnets by the Swan nest that I’d been watching for weeks. They had hatched the previous day and it was interesting to see the parents dividing the work of looking after their seven offspring, three with mum by the nest, and four with dad on the water.
As I walked further along the path the little lost baby Robin came into view. I didn’t want to get too close and took the photo above from a long distance. Even with my 400mm lens it was just a dot in the middle of the frame, but back at home I managed to get the picture reasonably clear. Then suddenly I saw that an adult Robin was standing by the chick.
The image above shows a rather blurred little chick. Its wings were flapping and flapping but all the effort was producing no effect. It couldn’t fly. Clearly this youngster must be a nestling that had fallen from a nest in the shrubbery to the side of the path and was not yet ready for the big wide world. Mother could only stand there. There was little she could do about her helpless baby robin apart possibly from bringing it some food. Probably she saw me in the distance, although it could be simply that she had other chicks to tend, and she flew away.
The baby Robin turned towards me and although I was still a long way away decided that the safest thing was to hop further along the path, but of course this was completely new territory. It had no idea where to go or what to do, but eventually went into the grass by the side. It was better to be there as people walked past.
The chick’s robin parents had not forgotten. Both now arrived and as one, possibly the mother bird, went close up to the young one in the grass the other stood by. But there was little they could do, and now humans with dogs were coming. They disappeared into the trees but not far away.
This parent Robin, that I think may have been the father, chose a seat high in a tree that still had no leaves. It allowed a clear view of what was going on around. The little one moved just a short distance further along then hid in the grass and that is where s/he was fifteen minutes later when I returned from taking yet another photo of a Coot nest. Still the parents were watchful.
Will The Baby Robin Survive?
I wondered whether they would come with food. Birds will often do that when chicks fall from the nest. Maybe they would do so later when no-one was around, but would that be enough for its survival. I hope so, but the sad reality of nature is that most young Robin chicks do not live beyond a few months, and some just a few weeks, or even days. Many a bird story has what at first seems to be an unfortunate ending, but although it may to some seem rather callous to say it this is the hard reality of the natural world and part of the cycle of life.
The Robin population is fully sustained, however, and in fact is increasing so that the conservation rating is “Of Least Concern“. Each Robin pair can have ten or more offspring each year in two or even three broods. Only about a quarter live much more than six months and into their second calendar year, but the strong ones that reach their third can often have much longer lives.
When I showed my friend the photographs that I’ve now put in this post she said that they would go well in my little book about robins. If there’s ever a second edition I may well add the story. Have you seen “Robin Redbreast” yet? It’s No.1 in the new “My Little Bird Books” series.
