# Stupid Begging Baby Birds **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 3, 2009, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-begging-baby-birds/498620 "2009-06-03T20:28:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2009, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-begging-baby-birds/498620/1 "2009-06-03T20:28:09Z")
This morning around 6am I hear the most horrible screams I ever heard. I woke up and thought, “OK, a cat has a bird,” I’ve heard this before, but it last like 5 or 10 _seconds_. But this kept going on and on and on, so I get up and it ain’t no cat. I see FIVE baby birds, four baby robins and one baby black/gray thing, (I think it’s a grackle) and the babies (which are like 9/10th the size of the parents) are screaming and chasing the parents with their mouths wide open. Then I see swarms of robins (the parents I reckon) trying to shut these screeching things up. Oddly enough the baby grackle (or whatever it was) got the big robin to drop it’s bug and ate it. I also saw the mama (or papa) grackle feeding their kids. Anyone else had this problem. I hear them this afternoon but fortunately now the babies are chasing the parents across the lawns away from my window. It’s rained a bit here in Chicago, so I guess the parents can find worms easy ---
**Author:** ![Dante](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dante/32/9673_2.png) [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2009, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-begging-baby-birds/498620/2 "2009-06-03T20:38:11Z")
Ugh, we’re having wildlife removal services come to our house tomorrow to remove birds that have gotten in under our roofing. Apparently the amount of damage they can do is impressive. There’s $1,200 I was looking forward to spending… ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2009, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-begging-baby-birds/498620/3 "2009-06-03T21:17:46Z")
They chase their parents? Creepy. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2009, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-begging-baby-birds/498620/4 "2009-06-03T21:32:40Z")
I have three parrots. If you think that noise is annoying _outside_ your house…! Yes, the little darlings never gave up begging, probably because the featherless bipeds in the household never stopped feeding them: Aw… so CUTE! _Hey, wait a minute! That’s MY sammich, give it BACK!_ ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2009, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-begging-baby-birds/498620/5 "2009-06-04T05:00:18Z")
They were back tonight. Everywhere I go in Chicago, there’s a robin lately. I don’t know why but there is an explosion of them lately How does the parent know to stop feeding the babies? As I said these “babies” are pretty much the same size as the adults ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2009, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-begging-baby-birds/498620/6 "2009-06-04T12:20:20Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > They were back tonight. Everywhere I go in Chicago, there’s a robin lately. I don’t know why but there is an explosion of them lately In recent years predatory birds like jays and crows took a bit hit from West Nile, that may be resulting in more songbirds like robins. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2009, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-begging-baby-birds/498620/7 "2009-06-04T14:12:48Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > In recent years predatory birds like jays and crows took a bit hit from West Nile, that may be resulting in more songbirds like robins. Yow! Jays and crows hunt robins?! I never knew! Or do they just eat the eggs and the young?😕 ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2009, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-begging-baby-birds/498620/8 "2009-06-04T16:29:08Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > They were back tonight. Everywhere I go in Chicago, there’s a robin lately. I don’t know why but there is an explosion of them lately I feel your pain. A funny aside: years ago in Chicago, my wife, kids and I were going to a restaurant. We parked in a lot at dusk. As we walked toward the restaurant, we saw swarms of bats coming out of a huge factory chimney. While watching, another couple came walking by and stopped to watch. The man said, "Wow, look at all dem brids coming out of da chimney. My daughter said, “Actually those are bats.” The man replied, “Bats is birds.” For years when the family gets together, we always use that as a slogan. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2009, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-begging-baby-birds/498620/9 "2009-06-04T19:09:11Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > I have three parrots. If you think that noise is annoying _outside_ your house…! > > Yes, the little darlings never gave up begging, probably because the featherless bipeds in the household never stopped feeding them: Aw… so CUTE! _Hey, wait a minute! That’s MY sammich, give it BACK!_ I only have one teeny one, but…damn, she can make some noise! ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2009, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-begging-baby-birds/498620/10 "2009-06-04T20:11:54Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > Yow! Jays and crows hunt robins?! I never knew! Or do they just eat the eggs and the young?😕 They eat the eggs and young, mostly. I don’t doubt they’d eat the adults, too, if they could but I doubt jays and crows have much success hunting full grown birds. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2009, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-begging-baby-birds/498620/11 "2009-06-04T20:22:30Z")
Back in my second year of college, evidently my air conditioning unit (it came with the apartment) was THE big stage for early-morning matinee performances of sparrow kick lines. Every morning at the crack of stupid, I would be woken up by a raucous chorus and the sounds of a hundred pairs of birdy feet dancing a vigorous can-can on the metal top of the AC. The songbird-and-dance numbers lasted hours during which no sleep was possible. Little turd machines are lucky there was no way for me to get the window open. I tried putting a picture of a particularly voracious looking owl in my window, but it only egged them on to have such an intense audience. Bastards! (I am not a morning person.) ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2009, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-begging-baby-birds/498620/12 "2009-06-04T20:38:25Z")
Well I don’t mind robins or even the grackles they’re better than pigeons, it’s just if you have ever heard a cat get a bird, how the bird for like five seconds cries out, then it stops. The bird is dead. This sounds EXACTLY like that but it goes on for a half an hour. It’s actually quite comical to watch these, babies (which are about the size of their parents, just running over to any of the birds with their mouths wide open and screaming. It’s funny 'cause the parent birds obviously know which one is their kid, but the babies don’t care. One robin will land with a worm and five or six babies rush it and the momma (or daddy) robin has to figure out which one of those are his. Then another robin lands with a worm and gets mobbed. Like I said, even the Adult grackle is getting mobbed by the babies and the baby grackle is demanding food from the robins. It’s a sight 🙂