How much do baby robins eat?

May 8, 2012

Mama bird trying to get comfortable!

We noticed the mother robin making many trips from the nest to get food for the babies. She appeared to be off the nest every 10-15 minutes.

For the first four days of a nestling's life, the parent birds regurgitate partly digested food into each baby’s mouth. By five days of age, the nestlings get earthworms that parents break into small mouthfuls. The babies eat more each day. Soon parents give them whole worms and large insects. Each young robin may eat 14 feet of earthworms in a two week nest life—and worms are not even their main food! How can parents keep up? Both parents feed the babies. A robin might make 100 feeding visits to its nest each day. There's no time to go far on a food hunt. That’s why a good territory is important to robins in spring. 

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