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American Robins Feeding Hatchlings

American Robins Feeding Hatchlings

May 19, 2023 Elizabeth

It’s been fun watching the parent robins with their nest. It is right outside of our doorway so every time we let the dogs in or out we check on it. The robins have been keeping the squirrels outside of the feeder area which is neat. They dive bomb them and chase them away right now. They also do that to Blue Jays. The Blue Jays just want peanuts but the robins are always chasing them away.

Robin eating fecal sac just after feeding hatchlings

Anyways, today we were able to capture this video by holding the camera out of the door. We got to see what I believe to be the male robin (it’s a little harder to tell the difference in the rain, they have slight color differences) bringing an earthworm in and feeding it to the hatchlings. Then, you’ll see him eat 3 fecal sacs before settling into the nest. This is totally normal! For the first few days, the hatchlings sac is mostly undigested food and so the parents can benefit from it while they feed most of their foraging to the young ones. Let me know in the comments if you’ve seen this behavior before! Watch closely in the video, within seconds of feeding the worms, he eats the sacs. Curious to hear other’s experiences seeing this. Here’s a link where you can read more about the behavior and the science of this behavior.

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