Back in April or May a couple of industrious robins built a nest on our (small) front porch.
When the babies hatched the adults became extremely territorial. If I opened the front door to get the mail, let alone to go in or out, they’d divebomb me. It was not fun.
Eventually the babies grew up and left. But some other robins (or maybe the same ones, I’m not sure, I never got their names) have moved into the empty nest and are raising another clutch of chicks.
If the first ones were territorial, these ones are even more so. I go out the back door, then toward the front of the house via my driveway or my neighbor’s driveway, and they launch themselves at me. I can feel them whooshing an inch or two above my head. This morning contact was made by one of them, fortunately a glancing blow that did not involve a beak.
They have gone after me as I walk down the sidewalk, too, pursuing me past the neighbor’s house and a vacant lot until I reach the next street.
It may be time to get out the bike helmet for when I have to leave the house. Or maybe a butterfly net. Or Robin-Be-Gone spray.
Seriously, it’s annoying and a bit alarming. Daphne DuMaurier, where are you…?
We used to have squirrels frolicking in the back yard… before the robins moved in. We’d wondered where all of the squirrels went, and finally I noticed that any squirrel who got too close to a tree where there is (apparently) a nest was vigorously chased out of the yard by a robin or two. Where there were once squirrels frolicking in the yard, we now had robins foraging.
I haven’t noticed any sounds I associate with baby birds, and the robins aren’t as prevalent as they were. I wonder if the squirrels finally got to their eggs?
Interesting- I’ve seen several other types of birds do this (especially mockingbirds), but I’d never seen dive bombing robins.
But I eventually learned that mockingbirds aren’t actually ATTACKING me- they just assume (wrongly) that I mean harm to the chicks, and they think harrassing me will get me to chase or follow hem AWAY from the tree where the nest is located. They don’t so much “bomb” me as “buzz” me, swooping right overhead to get my attention.
If I were a cat, this might be a smart approach. A cat MIGHT chase Mama bird far from the nest.
There are also several aggressive parents in the flycatcher family. I’ve seen one Mama flycatcher hovering in midair while pecking at a snake creeping too close for comfort.
Dismantle the nest before they lay more eggs, if you want to reclaim your porch.
If I were you, I’d probably just try moving it someplace else around the house or yard. But I’m not sufficiently-well versed in ornithologistics to say whether they’d be able to find it.
It’s illegal under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to interfere with any nesting native species of bird.
OP, your robin neighbours will fledge and leave soon. Isn’t it worth a little discomfort to have your property viewed as a safe breeding habitat by local wildlife?
I grew up with fake robins in the west - little, puffy, pretender wrens. One of the things I love about the northeast is the presence of real robins - big, arrogant, cocky bastards infesting my lawn.
I guess they could have a downside. Maybe you could use your back door until the nestlings leave?
(In California, we had scrub jays, which could be real bastards… I remember whole flocks of them objecting to my Maine Coon’s presence and doing their best Pearl Harbor impression trying to make him leave. The punchline was that he was big and fast and well-armed enough that about the fifth or sixth dive bomber would encounter a squash-ball-sized ball of fishhooks and lose some aerodynamic assets…)
I had the same issue a few years ago. A very aggressive robin would move into the nest on my front porch after the other robin left. I took down the nest that fall and put some rocks on the surface where the robin builds the nest. I also pull the nest apart whenever they come back and try to rebuild. It takes a couple weeks and there ends up being nesting materials everywhere but that works.
I just want to make it clear that this Robin is not the one who is attacking the OP. As far as I know, the OP is a fine human being who has done nothing to merit an attack.
Of course, “robins” doesn’t look right to me. It looks like the writer didn’t bother to capitalize a proper noun.
Thank you for not attacking. I am indeed a “fine human being who has done nothing to merit an attack,” and I am sure you are also a fine human being who does not attack innocents. Though when I saw your signature I will admit to covering my head, just in case.
I don’t intend to move or damage the nest, by the way. The chicks look pretty big and I am hopeful that they will leave quite soon.
On another note, someone or someones stole two packages off the porch this afternoon (first time this has happened in 12 years in the house). They made away with popcorn, tea, and gum, also a few medications with little or no street value. Though I am not generally a violent man, I did kind of wish that the robins had gotten them…