Here are photos I took over the past couple weeks of the robins from the nest just outside my dining room window. Four blue eggs were laid April 22 to 25. Four chicks hatched about a week later. They grew really fast until they didn't fit in the nest. The nest was a pile of feathers, birds stacked on birds. The big orange-breasted chick ("Alpha") was always calm and got the best spot in the nest. Two middle-sized light-breasted birds looked identical to me ("the Twins"). The smallest had a red breast and shorter tail than the others ("Tiny"). On May 19 they all fledged. Alpha disappeared early in the morning. Soon after, one of the Twins was gone. The other Twin stayed in the branches near the nest with Tiny til early the next day. Then Tiny was alone in the branches by the nest. He stayed another day, then disappeared also. For a week I never saw any of then. Now this week, they are back in my yard. The chicks follow a parent searching for worms in the grass. Sometimes she feeds them, sometimes they pull their own bugs. I've seen up to three chicks together. A small short-tailed red-breasted one always puffed up and looking timid (Tiny?), a calm red-breasted one (Alpha?) and a light-breasted one (a Twin?). Well the world is theirs now. They can fly to the tree tops, hide down under the bushes and feast on all the bugs out there.
