Yet Another Nest That Stays Dry On Rainy Days

Last Friday we did some nest searching at our Mara site and came across this house that had two robin's nests under the eaves of its porch. You wouldn't guess just by looking at it, unless you wondered why there was a piece of white string hanging down from one side. We found it thanks to the help of our newest co-worker (Mississippi Kite), who saw the female fly in to the porch with food in her mouth, a dead give-away she is feeding nestlings.


Here's a better view of that pesky piece of string, nest and all (you can't tell but there are four very young nestlings in the nest):


And here's the nest on the other porch post, you can tell just by looking it is last year's nest:


It never fails to amaze me that American robins will nest so close to humans since they are otherwise a fairly skittish bird. I wouldn't have had any idea that there are so many robin's nests on people's porches if I hadn't been on this project. It seems robins are a close third behind the non-native starlings and house sparrows when it comes to building on human structures. Now, when I nest search I make sure to check out every porch I walk by.