I recently took a walk off-trail at Papscanee Island in Rensselaer County, New York, taking advantage of deer trails to find my way through the thick brush. I was startled by an American Robin flushing from directly in front of me, not more than three feet away. A closer look at the location the bird flushed from revealed this:

American Robin Egg

After quickly taking a couple of pictures while the robin cluck-clucked her displeasure I retreated and waited for a few minutes, guarding against cowbirds, until the robin returned to the nest.

Good luck, egg!

And a question: If I hadn’t seen any robins today but stumbled upon the nest without seeing the robin that had just flown off, and identified the egg as a robin’s, could I count robin on my day-list?

an American Robin on a nest in Prospect Park, Brooklyn

This post was originally published on 6 May 2007, but we hate to keep posts this good buried in the archives! And remember to keep an eye out – it won’t be long before robins are nesting.

………

Written by Corey
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.