I just love to sneak peaks around the island in the kitchen to check and see if Mama Robin is in her nest as do the children, but I think I do it even more frequently than they do :) The tell tale sign of her tail poking up and over the rim of the plant hanger alerts me that I shouldn't get any closer but I still hang about peaking around the corner watching for any movements on her part and even hoping sometimes that she might spy me and poke her head up to get a better look like in the above photo *grin* Isn't it just awful!! I know she sees me but doesn't seem to care in the slightest anymore, which is actually great.
We're on Day 12 since the last little blue egg was laid and she is such a good Mama. Robin eggs usually tend to take 12 - 14 days to hatch which means the babies should be arriving VERY soon! Mama Robin only leaves the nest for 5 - 10 minutes at a time and that is when we usually run over to have a peak in the nest *grin* Quite often we have caught her on the return trip to the nest and she always arrives with a worm wriggling in her beak to snack on while she sits.
We have also been able to observe her rotating the eggs in the nest quite a few times during the day. Turning the eggs keeps them evenly heated and also keeps the baby chicks from sticking to the inside of the eggshell.
Did you know that a Robin has a temperature of 104*F or more sometimes? Her feathers act as insulators keeping her body temperature in while her feathers feel cold to the touch! Mama Robins need to have a special way to keep their eggs warm then for incubation and I bet you'll never guess how :) They actually have a bald spot called a 'Brood Patch' or 'Incubation Patch' on their bellies underneath their feathers that they use to keep the eggs at a constant temperature. When the Mama Robin sits on the eggs she fluffs up her under feathers with the help of her skin muscles to reveal the brood patch creating a skin to egg contact which creates the perfect temperature. Apparently there are little sensors on the brood patch as well that help the mother tell what temperature her eggs are so that she can get on and off of them accordingly to their needs for heat. Wow! Another super cool thing about birds :) Click HERE if you want to see what an actual brood patch looks like!
