Robin in the garden question…

[DrBlackbird]

Not a plant related question but as I couldn’t see a bird type thread to post on.

I’ve a small rotund robin in my garden hopping on the grass since this morning. Currently hiding in the bushes. The dog nearly got it before we realised what was so interesting to her.

In the hopes that gardeners also pay attention to garden wildlife, does anyone know how long it takes a fledgling to fly? Surely it can’t be hours or none of them would survive.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/wildlife-nature-conservation here's the place :)

It takes another 1-2 weeks to go from 'flying' (not flying but leaving) the nest and hopping, to actually developing the muscles to fly off. So yes, lots of them do die at this stage.

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I hate this time of year as loads of fledglings don’t make it (I know it’s nature but still…). Keep an eye on the dog and even more so if you have a cat. They do tend to be on the ground for a few days in bushes and the like.

Ah okay thanks for info and link to wildlife threads, very useful. We’ll keep the dogs out of the garden for a day or two and keep fingers crossed. It was just sitting on the grass in the middle of the garden sleeping and looked so vulnerable. Nature ought to have them fly a bit sooner!

We had a young Magpie a while back.

Wondered what all the rustling in the bushes was and then I noticed him hopping about to get food put out on the ground feeders.
Put a barrier across the lawn for a week to keep him safe from Ddogs and put food down for him. When we could see that he had the ability to flutter up onto the shed etc we removed the barrier. Although small Ddog did chase him once or twice, he was quite safe by then.

He pops back to see us regularly.

10-15 days for a robin but it will be gradually building up strength and be able to fly up to a nearby branch before it can fly more strongly.

Make sure your garden has a source of shallow water - old plate or plant tree maybe with a flat stone in it,

Yes we’ve got a bird bath but it’s on a pedestal @anyolddinosaur Hopefully that’ll work. Just looked vulnerable and I assumed it would fly within minutes of coming out of the nest, not taking hours. But we’ll keep the ddogs inside for now.

It may not yet be able to fly up to the bird bath, depends when it left the nest. I meant a plant tray, not a tree. Bathing the feathers keeps them in good condition.

Keeping the dogs away for a bit is important, just hope there are no nearby cats.