Robin Rescue in the City

 Where there are trees, there is life! When I used to live in the city I had a wonderful experience right at the start of my vacation once. Two robin babies fell out of their nest in the tree on my street. The parents were definitely not looking after them, so my rescue mission was on.

I had a deep flower pot and made a bed out of branches and leaves in there for the two. Then searched the web on what to feed them. One was very weak and didn't make it through another day. It wouldn't take anything from me. So the one left, I named it Junior, became my baby for my vacation. It opened his beak and took the squasched strawberries and the watered down dog food no problem. I also dug for worms for it and it took little pieces. My husband and I went to by mealworms for it then. Junior grew and I actually got up early every single day during my vacation to feed her. I do believe it was a female because the red chest didn't seem to be the bright red that the males have.

When it got stronger it jumped out of the pot. I put her back in the pot being worried about the cats. She got stronger and at some point made it up in a bush. I found it in a bush by the wall and kept feeding her there.





She learned flying and I dug for worms in my flowerbeds while it hopped around and actually tried to dig herself where I dug.



Her flying skills improved greatly. I sat her on the bird bath and she had her first bath. What a fun.





She followed me around the yard and sat on my shoulder and wanted to get fed. At some point I had to let her go and ignore her. She flew quite well.


There was a dramatic turn of events just when it started to fly better. It flew into the glass of the patio door trying to follow me. She hurt herself. I was worried it wouldn't be able to fly again. But after a couple of days back in the pot she made it out again and was fine. What a relief.


One can actually buy decals to put on windows that are hardly visible to the human eye but will stop the birds from flying into them. They come in different shapes, like a heart, maple leaf or other. I always have them on my windows now.


Anyway. When I stopped feeding her she eventually gave up and continued to socialize with the other robins. What a pleasure. She picked her own worms etc. and one day she disappeared.


I truly believe that the next year she came back, but I couldn't be sure. After all they kind of look alike. But there was one coming back and sitting in the bush and it was a touch larger I thought than the others. Could it have been the dog food? :-)


It was a once in a lifetime experience I will never forget. And here are some images:









Did you ever have a similar experience? Feel free to share it on this blog!