American Robin nests are frequently found and raided by fox squirrels.
A. The main predators of robin eggs are snakes, squirrels, blue jays, and crows. Deer eat a lot of bird eggs and nestlings, too, but only from ground nests.
Squirrels, snakes, and other birds have been known to eat robin eggs and chicks. Predators to adult robins include hawks, snakes, and cats. These birds are easily spotted hopping around city parks and lawns, searching for food in flocks.
In some situations baffles can be placed around trees to prevent climbing predators from reaching the nest. You can also discourage predators from hanging around the area by not leaving food outside. Keeping pets indoors, especially during the nesting season, can also save millions of birds every year.
We classified predators as either nest predators, which are strictly threats to reproductive success, or adult predators, which hosts recognize as direct threats to their own survival (e.g., genus Accipiter hawks and “small” owls; Congdon, Hahn, Campbell, et al., 2020; Sieving, Hetrick, & Avery, 2010).
Many wild and domestic animals raid bird nests. That includes the aforementioned squirrels, rats, house cats, ravens, crows, magpies, scrub jays, Steller's jays, kestrels, Cooper's hawks, sharp-shinned hawks, gopher snakes, kingsnakes, egrets and herons.
Apparently, cuckoos have evolved the ability to mimic the eggs of certain other bird species, and those are the species that they seek out when invading nests. Secreting pigment in their oviducts, the parasitic birds can closely replicate the host birds' eggs.
If you move a robin's nest the parents will most likely abandon the nest, eggs and/or young. Here's why: Nest-site fidelity grows during the nesting season. The more time and energy the birds invest in the nest, the less likely they are to abandon it when disturbed.
Q. How long does a robin use the nest? A. A robin uses a nest for about 5 weeks, from the time it is built until the young fledge.
Noisemakers, like wind spinners or wind chimes, can scare off robins. Other popular options include brightly colored ribbons, Mylar streamers, or sonic repellents, which can frighten robins away from your property.
Only in extreme circumstances should you consider relocating a nest, and if you do, it must be replaced very close, within a few feet of the original location. Once relocated, watch and make sure the parents are returning. If the parents do not return, contact a wildlife rehabilitator.
While robins might repair or build on top of a previous nest, most of them build a new nest. This is best for many reasons. A used nest is a mess, stretched out and often home to insects or parasites and possibly poop. Take the nest down and the nest site will be ready for the next robin family.
On The Nest
Mother robins may start incubating their eggs during the evening after the second egg is laid, or after all the eggs are laid. They sit on the eggs for 12 to 14 days. The female usually does all the incubating. Even in good weather, she rarely leaves her eggs for more than 5 to 10 minutes at a time.
So birds certainly possess the capacity to mourn—they have the same brain areas, hormones, and neurotransmitters as we do, “so they too can feel what we feel,” Marzluff says—but that doesn't mean we know when it's happening.
Robins are particularly protective of their nest sites when young are in their nests. Nest predators, such as crows, will be mobbed by several robins in an area where there are a number of robin nests. After breeding season is over, robins gather for the night in communal roosts.
Many people believe that a visit from a Robin is a sign that a lost relative is visiting them, in the spiritual world Robins are viewed as a symbol of visits from our deceased loved ones. The Robin also symbolises new beginnings and life, and is also looked upon by many as a sign of fortune and good luck.
Most nests are located on or near the ground in hollows, nooks and crannies, climbing plants, hedgebanks, tree roots, piles of logs and any other situations which provide a fully concealed cavity.
On average, though, only 40 percent of nests successfully produce young. Only 25 percent of those fledged young survive to November. From that point on, about half of the robins alive in any year will make it to the next.
Robins are in turn eaten by foxes, bobcats, hawks, shrikes, and owls, and crows and blue jays often take their eggs and babies. These are all natural predators.
Hopefully if you keep well away and not disturb her again she will already be back on the nest, they have been known to nest in sheds and greenhouses with people still using them so seem to tolerate people so fingers crossed all will be ok.
However, if you do inadvertently happen to touch a bird's egg or nest, rest assured that your scent alone won't cause the parents to flee. Just leave the area as quickly and quietly as you can, and do what you can to minimize your disturbance.
If a nest is found with no eggs or chicks in it, leave it alone. Other reasons why a nest is abandoned with eggs or hatchlings is that the eggs may be unfertilized, a predator has been seen in the area, or the robin cannot find the nest since the tree lines have been disturbed.
The young cuckoos hatch early and dominate the brood by pushing other chicks out of the nest. However, there is so much competition between Australian native bronze-cuckoos that they have changed the way they disguise their eggs. Unlike cuckoos on other continents, the native cuckoo's eggs do not mimic the host's eggs.
Yes, as Lolly says, Magpies and other corvids will predate any nest they find.
Avoid the area if possible and ideally put up signs to keep others away temporarily as well. If the nest site is in a vulnerable position, a protective fence, table or chairs can be placed around the nest site so that the birds can come and go safely until the chicks are hatched.