I thought I knew about Robins, a very common North American bird.
I was wrong!
After a little research I found I have been wrong about a number of facts:
- The American Robin is not a true robin at all, it is a Thrush. Early settlers mistakenly identified because it resembled the English Robin.
- “The American Robin has an extendable esophagus, or canal between the mouth and the stomach.” according to Hinterland Who’s Who, “This can be useful in winter, for example, when the bird may store fruits in the esophagus before it settles for the night. This probably allows the robin to survive low nighttime temperatures.”
- I have always associated the robin with earthworms. “The early Bird gets the worm”. Actually earthworms, beetles, and caterpillars provide about 40 percent of its diet, the robin is chiefly a fruit-eating species.
One fact that is repeated from book to book to website and back is the number of eggs at one time in a nest. They all say 3-4, occasionally 5 … so please explain this! The photo was taken late May last year… a very Prolific Robin indeed.
These photos were taken 2 days apart.
Is this possibly a “time-share” nest? 🙂
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I wonder, there must be some kind of sharing going on.
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🙂
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Amazing ! I have never seen such a beautiful blue (cyan) eggs before !!
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I suspect that at least two different females were laying in the nest. Typically one egg a day is laid by an individual. Some species are known to share a nest. The Eurasian Blue Tit is recorded as a species where two females will use the same nest.
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I suspect that is what’s going on. Must be better to share the duties, i just hope that when they hatch, the guys on the bottom are fed.
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Interesting on the facts, especially the expandable esophagus! Seeing those gorgeous eggs in the nest is quite a treat.
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The nest was on my neighbours porch so easy to see.
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I wonder if a lot of birds have that expanding esophagus to regurgitate and feed the young.
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I have seen the Great Blue Herons regurgitate like that– interesting to watch, if a bit gross.
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Makes feeding the young easier… glad humans don’t have to do that…
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Looks like those little Easter candy eggs!! Mama will be very busy if all hatch at once!
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Wow, I wonder if they all hatched never seen anything like that.
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I wish i could tell you, I moved away before the hatching took place, so have no idea. 😢
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Gorgeous!
Many thanks for stopping by my Travel and Photography blog. 🙂
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So they have a crop? And thanks for pointing out it’s actually a thrush. For the double sized egg stash, perhaps two birds teamed up to share a near or one adopted a nest plus laid it’s eggs in there, or more likely it was just a super fertile bird? Interesting stuff!
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