American Robin
© Joseph Ridgeway
Published:
October 10, 2011
A young American Robin perches amid wild grape vines moments after it fledged from its nest. Subscriber Joseph Ridgeway of West Deptford, New Jersey, took the photo in June 2011 across the street from his house. He used a Sony Cybershot DSC-H5 and posted the photo to our
Backyard Gallery.
"I spotted the mom robin making the nest in early May and watched her from the nest-building stage through to this last baby robin’s fledging," Joseph says. "I was lucky enough to be there when the last chick fledged. If you look closely, you can see my reflection in the robin's eye."
The nest fledged three robins, but they were far from the only young birds in the neighborhood that summer. "We also have nest boxes set up in our yard and had 12 baby House Wrens fledge from three separate boxes and four chickadees fledge from another. Across the street is a golf course, and I help manage a Purple Martin colony that had more than 200 chicks successfully fledge. The Purple Martin Society banded over 175 of them."
See more photos of robins in our galleries
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