Robins are the number one rescue intake, at least here in Central Oregon.
But, I know my colleagues around the country get a lot as well.
Add cats take out babies in the nest and on the ground. Windows take out
fledglings.All corvids (except Pinyons) eat baby birds.
Add raccoons to the list of offenders. Hot tubs allow them to breed
year-round, multiple litters a year.
Add the human factor of apathetic and callous 'baby birds are supposed to
be on the ground', that allows people to simply watch a baby robin suffer
rather than help him/her.
25% of baby robins make it to November. Their developmental stages are
poorly understood. They leave the nest (under normal circumstances) when
they are unflighted but fully feathered (not just baby wings), departing to
the branches near the tree nest. Here they will stay until their feathers
are more filled in and their wings are larger. Only then will they drop to
the ground, at this point partially flighted. They then start practicing
foraging and hunting, parents close by. After about a week they are fully
flighted, but that can be up to 10 days as well.
The problems occur if they get forced out of the nest and tree branches
before they are ready. They get marooned on the ground with feathering too
poorly developed to protect them from the elements or give them any kind of
partial flight escape. Too-young robins on the ground tend to sit in one
place, making them an easy target for domestic animals and wildlife, and
they often wind up wet or sun-beaten. They slowly starve as well as
parental care can be limited. These are the ones that come into care.
People feed crows and raccoons. Crows and ravens are everywhere now.
Raccoons are expanding their numbers and range. I've lost renested babies
to both (I check nests for 3 days post renest as a practice).
Humans call attention to nests in their need to photo and "check" nests
(sorry Nestwatch). Once a human has walked up to, and "discovered" a nest
of baby birds, those babies are at extreme risk of being found by all sorts
of predators, from mice to predatory birds). The nest - especially an open
nest vs cavity - is the most vulnerable place a bird can be; birds are
acutely aware of this. And that is why, once discovered, babies can jump
out of the nest and wind up on the ground before they are ready.
Anyhoo, as robin populations decline across the US (and they are, not in
all locations yet, but more and more), caring for our baby robins is
paramount.
One of the Native Bird Care of Sisters FB posts has pictures of the 4
developmental phases of baby robins. Sadly, most of the rescues in Oregon
focus on raptors and mammals, and some outright tell people to leave babies
on the ground with explanations that it is "natural."
You can help by putting up legitimate window soloutions (not just a couple
of stickers), leave nests alone, never feed (or leave foods they would eat
outside) raccoons or corvids), keep cats inside...etc etc. If you are not
adjacent to wild lands (where earthworms are an invasive, damaging
species), then perhaps populate some grass wtih them again.
For the birds.
Elise Wolf
Native Bird Care of Sisters
Sisters, OR
541-728-8208
On Sat, Sep 25, 2021 at 4:37 AM <jmeredit@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Douglas Tallamy, an entomologist, wrote a terrific book, NATURE'S BEST
HOPE, about how we can bring back more worms and insects. There is a Robin
on the cover.
Judy, jmeredit@xxxxxxxxxxx
On 2021-09-24 21:46, Jeff Gilligan wrote:
I earlier speculated about the crash in the once dense population of
American Robins, and why they are now almost entirely absent as breeders in
the neighborhoods of Portland, such as Laurelhurst.
I attributed it to the urbanization of crows, the introduction of eastern
squirrels, and maybe a bit to the urbanization of Cooper's Hawks. Those
might be much of the reason, but another occurred to me.
That is that earth worms i watered lawns now seem absent. Formerly, after
grassy yards were watered, or after a rain, there would be many to be seen
in the late hours of afternoon or at night. Inevitably a few would get
stranded on the sidewalk, and not survive the next day. I now seen none,
even after the recent rain.
Formerly, it was these non-native earth worms that American Robins thrived
on. Their young would follow the adults on the lawns begging for the next
catch.
I have no theory what happened to the worms, and without them, there is
very little food for American Robins.
This refers to the earth worms in NW gardens:
Night Crawlers mating (*Lumbricus terrestris*) Illus: Craig Latker
In a Nutshell
*Popular Name:*
Earthworm, nightcrawler, red wiggler, angleworm (a reference to fish bait)
*Scientific Name:*
*Phylum*: Annelida, the segmented worms, leeches, and polychaetes. *Class*:
Oligochaeta. *Family*: Many, but Lumbricidae includes most familiar
earthworms.
*Common Garden Species:*
Epigeic red wiggler, or brandling worm (*Eisenia fetida*) is found in
leaf litter, manure, and compost piles. Red marsh or leaf worm (*Lumbricus
rubellus*), also sometimes called red wiggler (a term better reserved for *E.
fetida*), is found in topsoil. Nightcrawler or fish worm (*Lumbricus
terrestris*) is a large deep-dwelling worm.
How might the recent invader species of worm affect bird populations?
https://today.oregonstate.edu/news/invasive-jumping-worms-leap-oregon
