Robins: Not Very Visually Acute

     We have a robin around here that is building a nest, (well, it is trying to).  It has chosen to build the nest on the beam that is supporting the roof joists on my carport.  The robin has been busy gathering grasses and other suitable nest building materials which it carries back to the carport to construct the nest.  Unfortunately, when it returns, it gets mixed up as to exactly where it started building the nest.  The beam and the roof joists all look alike to it and so the poor robin has started several nests, not realizing that it is in the wrong place from the original location.  As a result, it is doing a lot more nest building than it needs to.

    Robin’s have never impressed me with their intelligence, but I guess they have enough to survive, because they haven’t gone extinct.

    In years past, I have had a male robin persistently pecking on our windows.  The robin sees its reflection in the window and thinks it is another male robin and is pecking in an attempt to make the other bird go away.  I tried several times to shoo the robin away from the window, but it kept coming back.  Eventually, getting tired of the constant noise caused by the robin pecking on the glass, I covered the outside of the window with paper so it could no longer see its reflection.

    I remember once when I was visiting down in Indiana, there was a robin that kept pecking on the side view mirror of the car.  Here a a blog about it that I wrote in 2013:

        Remember that crazy robin I told you about, that was pecking at its reflection on the basement window? The other day when I went out on my mother's porch, I saw the robin sitting on the side view mirror of my mom's car. I thought it was a bit of a strange place for it to perch on, but I was happy to see it somewhere besides in front of the basement window.

        Later in the day, I had to use the car to make a run to the grocery for some supplies. I noticed there was a splatter of bird poop on the floor beneath the mirror. Then when I got in the car and glanced over at the side view mirror, I noticed that there was a multitude of smudge marks on it's mirror surface where the robin had been leaning over the top of the mirror, pecking at his reflection.

        I hope you can make out the smudge marks in the mirror. 

    View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca