Robins Hatch

(3 Minute Read. 1Jun2022)

Robin Eggs at Campground (5/18/22)

This picture of a robin’s nest at our campground from last week’s blog Robin or Robinosaurus? was taken on Wednesday May 18, 2022. The four eggs in the nest were each slightly bigger than a quarter in diameter.

Due to the vulnerable location of the nest about one foot off the ground in a fork of the legs of a campsite picnic table, I did not expect a successful hatch.

Nevertheless, I checked on the nest again on Sunday afternoon May 29, 2022. Looking at the nest from 20 yards away I saw that the mother robin was not on the nest. I expected to find an abandoned nest, possibly with remains of broken eggs.

2 baby robins, 2 eggs (5/29/22)

I got a bit of a surprise, however, when I looked in the nest. There were two recently hatched baby robins and two as yet unhatched eggs.

Robins lay one egg per day in mid-morning after early feeding on worms. They usually stop laying after three or four eggs. Only after completing the laying do they start incubating the eggs. Incubation typically takes 14 days, and the eggs usually hatch one per day, in the order in which they were laid.

Mama Robin incubates the eggs by herself, but for two weeks after they hatch, both Mama and Papa Robin work full-time feeding the chicks. They serve 100 to 150 meals a day to the hatchlings. A baby robin eats its weight in worms, insects, and berries every day.

3 baby robins, 1 egg (5/30/22)

The following day, Monday May 30, I again checked the nest. This time there were three hatchlings and only one blue egg left.

The next day, Tuesday May 31, I checked the nest again. Mama Robin was sitting on the nest as I approached, but she kindly flew off a short way to permit me to check on the progress of her brooding. This time there were four live baby robins. All four eggs had hatched.

So the eggs hatched one at a time this past Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday after incubating for 14 days. They were likely laid May 11, 12, 13, and 14. I discovered them on May 18, four days into the incubation period.

4 baby robins (5/31/22)

Robin Lesson

We can learn a valuable lesson from these robins. Jesus Himself pointed to birds as prime examples of the Great Creator’s provision and care.
“For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink. . . . Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? . . . Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing? . . . For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:25-26,31-34)

Jesus specifically says in this passage to “look at the birds of the air” to learn this crucial truth:
Don’t worry — God will take care of you.
Instead of worrying about mundane daily needs, the responsibility Jesus assigns to men is to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Then the other daily needs will be provided.

To me, this little robin family was a reminder of this passage and of the Great Creator‘s care for His creation, including me. I marveled at the Great Creator‘s wondrous design of the robin and how He arranged for robins to reproduce after their kind.

Questions to Ponder

1. How does Mama Robin know how to build a nest?
2. What makes Mama Robin sit on her nest for two weeks with only hourly 10-minute breaks?
3. Why do Mama and Papa Robin work full time for two weeks feeding their brood?

Share your thoughts on these questions in the comments below. It could encourage or help another reader.

For Christ and His Kingdom. Soli Deo Gloria. Alere Flammam Veritatis.

Read the prequel:
Robin or Robinosaurus?

Read the sequel:
Robin Mystery

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©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
“for the defense of the gospel”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:5; Phil 1:16)
Wednesday June 1, 2022 A.D.

But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you;
And the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you.
Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you;
And let the fish of the sea declare to you.
Who among all these does not know
That the hand of the LORD has done this,
In whose hand is the life of every living thing,
And the breath of all mankind? (Job 12:7-10)

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