birds
Posted by carly zeis on May 18, 2006
Q: okay. i noticed American Robins help thier babies ever after they've hatched and grown feathers and can help themselves, and sometimes i even see them with the babies when their fully grown. what i want to know is, how long does the mother stay with the babies?
A: Excellent question Carly. Once a baby Robin leaves the nest, it's called a fledgling. Fledglings are able to hop about, fly a wee bit, and get up off the ground enough to avoid many predators. During this time the parents are very much involved with the care of their babies and feed them right along, just no longer in the nest. As the fledglings grow and mature, they become more and more self-sufficient and eventually can rely totally on themselves. As the fledglings achieve this independence, they are less and less dependent on their parents and their parents are less and less interested in feeding them. Eventually the parenting just peters out and they kind of go their seperate ways. I can't give you a definite time frame but I hope you get the idea. Thanks for a great question.
John Wiessinger ( May 18, 2006)