birdiekeek
New member
Hi all!
I’d like to tell you about Frodo & Sam, the pair of European robins I have made friends with in my garden over the past few months.
They were always curious about us, I started putting food out for them at the start of this year and standing closer and closer until they trusted me to eat out of my hand, which is such a special feeling. They then started to wait for me in the mornings, perched on an old basket ball hoop by the back door. They have different personalities, Sam would cheep a lot, and always fly to my hand, take a fat pellet/mealworm and fly off with it, whereas Frodo was quiet but more confident, sitting and eating on my hand for a while, which I loved because I could admire him.
(I assumed Sam was female and Frodo male because for a little bit before their chick arrived, Sam used to cheep and open her beak and Frodo would feed her, I read somewhere, possibly on BF that adult males feed adult females as a mating ritual? I could be wrong about them though)
They even brought their little chick to eat from our garden for a couple of weeks in April (we named it Precious!) but we don’t see it anymore, I guess it has moved on to its own territory?
This was our little routine for so many months and I loved it so much. However a lot has changed over the past few weeks, we saw Sam less and less gradually until now she doesn’t visit at all anymore, and Frodo is suddenly extremely wary of me and it’s quite confusing because I’ve tried to keep the routine the same and be calm and predictable but now he seems very anxious and quite scared of me, no longer eating from my hand and being very skittish when I move even a little bit.
I’m not sure why things would change like this, I wasn’t sure if it perhaps was seasonal somehow? I noticed Frodo was molting a lot a couple of weeks ago, he looked so scruffy for a while. The only other thing that’s changed environment wise is we have a lot more sparrows visiting the garden now but I don’t know if that would make any difference?
Any help or advice would be much appreciated, I feel quite sad that we don’t have our little bond anymore, I just want Frodo and Sam to be comfortable visiting us again!
Thank you
I’d like to tell you about Frodo & Sam, the pair of European robins I have made friends with in my garden over the past few months.
They were always curious about us, I started putting food out for them at the start of this year and standing closer and closer until they trusted me to eat out of my hand, which is such a special feeling. They then started to wait for me in the mornings, perched on an old basket ball hoop by the back door. They have different personalities, Sam would cheep a lot, and always fly to my hand, take a fat pellet/mealworm and fly off with it, whereas Frodo was quiet but more confident, sitting and eating on my hand for a while, which I loved because I could admire him.
(I assumed Sam was female and Frodo male because for a little bit before their chick arrived, Sam used to cheep and open her beak and Frodo would feed her, I read somewhere, possibly on BF that adult males feed adult females as a mating ritual? I could be wrong about them though)
They even brought their little chick to eat from our garden for a couple of weeks in April (we named it Precious!) but we don’t see it anymore, I guess it has moved on to its own territory?
This was our little routine for so many months and I loved it so much. However a lot has changed over the past few weeks, we saw Sam less and less gradually until now she doesn’t visit at all anymore, and Frodo is suddenly extremely wary of me and it’s quite confusing because I’ve tried to keep the routine the same and be calm and predictable but now he seems very anxious and quite scared of me, no longer eating from my hand and being very skittish when I move even a little bit.
I’m not sure why things would change like this, I wasn’t sure if it perhaps was seasonal somehow? I noticed Frodo was molting a lot a couple of weeks ago, he looked so scruffy for a while. The only other thing that’s changed environment wise is we have a lot more sparrows visiting the garden now but I don’t know if that would make any difference?
Any help or advice would be much appreciated, I feel quite sad that we don’t have our little bond anymore, I just want Frodo and Sam to be comfortable visiting us again!
Thank you
