Day 5. Still mostly quiet and sleeping. Skin is darkening. Feathers visible under the skin.
Closeup #1 of those developing wings/feathers.
Closeup #2 of the wing/feather development.
Those downy tufts on the top of their heads makes them look like old men!
No, it’s not a buttonhole. It’s the eye slit widening. A few more days until they open.
All lined up, waiting for food.
Day 4. More misty rain. Eye slits widening. Wing feathers noticeable under the skin. Tiny robin feet!
See if you can find the worm that the mother robin left in the nest for the babies to eat!
Day 3 and another chilly, damp day for the baby robins. The mother stayed on the nest most of the day. I checked them in the morning (sleepy heads) and at dusk (sort of hungry, but mostly sleepy). This group seems to be developing slower than last year’s.
Day 2. I was able to see all four baby robins, but they are really very snuggled together. Today was chilly and rainy. I expected to see them eating today, but mostly they slept. I try to only look in the nest in the morning and night so that they are not disturbed too much, but really, every time someone leaves the house, the mother flies to the nearby tree and leaves the nest for a few minutes.
Here’s the honeysuckle vine on our front porch. Can you find the nest?
Look closely and you will see the mother bird’s beak. She’s done a terrific job keeping the warm and dry this weekend.
Eye slits are starting to form. They will continue to spread across the eye before they are able to open.
Four sleepyheads. Look at that baby chicken neck!
If you look close, you can see the beginnings of where the feathers will start to emerge.
Not as sharp as I would like, but this closeup of the down shows off the tiny spurs that hold air.
We have baby robins again this year! Last year I documented the 12 days of their development from hatching to leaving the nest. You can look through the archive here (reverse order of date, so scroll down to see the earlier images).
Four robin eggs in nest. The nest is built in our honeysuckle vines on our front porch.
Baby robins Day 1! Hatched on Sunday, April 28th. So far 3 of the 4 eggs have hatched. Last year they hatched on April 27th!