Cute and Cuddly?
Bulging eyes, gaping beaks and bare pink skin — baby robins are a sight to behold! How would you describe newly-hatched nestlings inside a robin’s nest?
Big Eyes
A baby robin’s transparent skin and translucent skull let us see the actual size of the eyes. They look enormous on tiny nestlings, but will soon be hidden by feathers. Baby robins are born with their eyes closed and remain shut for about five days.
A robin in North America goes through the nest-building process two or three times a year. They are expert builders! Some robins can live up to 12 years, according to banding studies. These birds may have built 20 or even 30 nests over their lifetimes!
Robins don't need written instructions for building their summer homes. They follow the "nest-building blueprints" in their brains, and instinctively know how to build the perfect structure to hold the eggs they're about to lay. Robins' nests are always alike, but have you ever seen a robin teaching another how to build a nest?
What do monarch butterfly larvae do?
Crawling along a paper-thin leaf. Eating while hanging upside down. Monarch caterpillars defy gravity. What do monarchs do during the larval stage of the life cycle?
