In this article you’re going to learn what Robins do when their babies die
You’ll learn what birds in general do if a baby dies in the nest
Also, if you have baby robins and they have been killed, what might have caused
Sound good?
Let’s get started!
When a robins baby dies in their nest they tend to throw the baby away somewhere out of sight
Why do they do this?
It’s so no predators come and eats the baby
This is something that has been observed by someone who seen a nest of robin babies and kept a journal
Check out the cool video at the end of the article – It’s a time lapse of a Robins nest (It’s pretty cool!)
Do Robins Remove Dead Babies?
Yes as I mentioned earlier robins tend to remove dead babies
They take them away and put them in places where predators cannot see them
I guess they want to protect it from being eaten by predators
Also another possible reason they know insects and scavengers will be attracted to the dead bird so to protect the other babies the mother will take it out of sight
They are no scientific evidence to back this up but it does make sense
Birds are intelligent animals!
What Do Birds Do If a Baby Dies In The Nest?
All birds are different and will react to a dead baby in the nest differently
For example a carrion bird like a crow would eat the dead baby
Chickens would usually ignore their chicks that are dead and will wait till all the remaining eggs are hatched.
She would then remove all the chicks from the nest
Birds that build nests would tossed their babies that have died out of the nest or their living siblings would just crush them and step on them until dry out at the bottom of the nest
It’s sad but this is nature and how birds work
The most common thing a bird would do is toss them out of the nest and throw them somewhere far
This is because they don’t want to attract any insects or predators
What Killed My Baby Robins? Possible Reasons
There are a number of reasons how a baby robin could be killed
Unfortunately there are a lot of predators that eat robins
Here’s a list of predators that would eat a robin
- Jay and crows
- Mockingbirds
- Waxwings
- Hawks
- Shrikes
- Owls
- Cats
- Dogs
- Foxes
- Raccoons
- Snakes
As you can see Robins have a lot of predators that would eat them
So it could be one these predators that may have eaten your robin
Some baby robins could just die after they have been hatched
They are prone to disease as they are weak and can’t even see too
How To Protect a Birds Nest
If you want to protect your robins nest the best thing to do is actually stay away and leave it alone
That’s right
It’s important you just leave the nest as it is
Yes, it is exciting and you want to take a look
But here’s the problem
If you get too close you risk of damaging the nest
Or any loud noise and disturbance could startle the parents which could result in the parent leaving the nest altogether!
I’m sure you wouldn’t want that to happen right?
Another thing you could do is attract predators
How?
You leave a scent trail which predators can easily pick up and this could attract predators to the nest and eat the babies!
So my advice to you would be to leave the nest alone and don’t keep visiting it
The best thing you could do is look at the babies grow through a binocular
That way the nest is safe and you get to see the cute babies grow and the mother feeding them
Another thing you can do to protect a nest is to NOT trim your hedges, meadows, and trees
Let them grow
All of these places have cosy nooks for a bird to raise their young babies
If by chance you see a bird nest in one of these places avoid trimming it until the breeding season is over
What To Do With Empty Nests?
So you’ve kept an eye out on your robins nest and now you see they have all hatched and not there anymore
What should you do with the empty nest?
Before you actually do anything make sure there is no activity
Are you 100% sure their are no eggs in there
Or maybe there are eggs but you see no parent – that does not necessary mean the parent will not come back
Wait for around 2 weeks to ensure it is safe to remove the nest
Or you could just wait for the nesting season to end – this differs from different bird species
According to rspb nesting for robins would end late July
But it would be more cautious if you waited till the end of August just to make sure it’s okay to remove the nest
Wrapping Up
When a Robins baby dies they tend to take the dead baby and put it somewhere out of sight
The reason for this is to stop attracting insects and predators
Other bird species differ to what they do
For example a crow would eat their dead babies
There are many predators that robin has so it’s important for the mother to protect their nest by removing unfortunate dead babies
