European Robin (1 Viewer)

Good evening,

Anyone know anything about the breeding habits of a European Robin.

I have one nesting in a open fronted box in the honeysuckle.

She built a wonderful cup nest about 2 weeks ago and has laid an egg every morning since Wednesday.

After laying the egg in the early morning she goes awol for the rest of the day and night before returning the next morning it seems to lay another.

Is this behaviour normal.?

Will the embryo only start to develop when she starts incubating the whole clutch.

Obviously the temperature drops overnight significantly and the eggs will be cold

I used to breed Canaries and they always started incubating egg 1 onwards, rarely leaving the nest.

Thanks in advance.

Mike. :t:

Yes, that's normal - it is so the chicks don't start developing until the clutch is complete, so they all hatch at the same time. Some other birds (e.g. owls) start incubating as soon as the first egg is laid, with the result that the early eggs hatch earlier, so you get older, larger chicks and smaller, younger chicks in the same nest.

Hadn't realized that Nutcracker. Good info.

....and that's a Robin, its only all the imitations that require a qualifier.

John