I keep forgetting to share this.
Earlier this summer I was alerted to a snake in an American Robin’s nest by the
parents scolding calls.
The snake seemed to care less about the adult robins; however, he did not like
my being there. As much as I wanted to help I decided to let nature take its
course. I bumped a branch as I was filming and this caused the snake to start
regurgitating the nestling. I found this interesting because the Robins were
shaking the bush during their bombing attacks, yet this did not alarm the snake
the same way as when I moved the bush ever so slightly. I touched a branch
lower down that the snake could not see and he immediately spit out the rest of
the nestling and retreated from the nest. He had one nestling in his mouth and
at the same time was mantling two other nestlings preventing them from fleeing.
When he retreated the two nestlings hopped out of the nest and the half eaten
nestling dropped to the ground dead. The adults went off and tended to the two
live young and the snake fled under the front porch. I figured that the snake
earned the dead bird so I moved it beside the porch. Shortly after the snake
came out and retrieved the dead bird.
A few days later I saw a young Robin on the ground in the backyard and two
adults tending to another young Robin on a low branch in a nearby tree.
Here is a video I made of the events http://youtu.be/BYvGSJhLHio
