24 July 2023

The Curious Case of the Egg on the Sidewalk


For the past 3-4 years we have had a robin's nest in a small crabapple tree that I walk past every day on the way to the mailbox.  This year I was surprised one morning to find on the sidewalk a perfectly-formed and fully intact baby blue robin's egg. The oddness of the situation lay in the fact that this location was not underneath or even near the nest; it was a good 20-30 feet up the sidewalk.  How did it get to this location?

A few days later when I looked at the nest, I saw not a robin looking back at me, but rather a female cardinal:


Did she evict the egg from the nest?  I can't believe that beak fashioned for cracking seeds could grasp an intact egg.  Some days later I held my cell phone over her empty nest to see what was in it...


I can't identify unfledged baby birds, but suspect that is a young cardinal, since the mother continued to visit that nest.  Meanwhile, the robin (or at least a robin) is now nesting over the security light by the garage door.

And the egg on the sidewalk remains a mystery.  Could it have been laid on the sidewalk in desperation because the nest had been taken by a cardinal?  It sat there for 4-5 days and then disappeared as mysteriously as it had arrived.  I'd be glad to hear informed opinions.

5 comments:

  1. I was told that a robber bird took it and wast scared away before eating it. I found a chicken leg on the roof and figured it was the same story.

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  2. The robins egg was probably evicted, or stolen and dropped in flight by the thief. The egg on the sidewalk disappeared because someone came by and ate it - bird or animal.

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  3. If I had to guess, I'd guess a cowbird visited the robin's nest before the cardinal took over. I had that happen a few years ago with a nest that was made in a decoration in front of my front door, cowbirds will kick an egg out and lay one of their own.

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    1. I understand about cowbirds and cuckoos, but I don't think an egg can be kicked out of a nest 5 feet in the air and wind up intact on a concrete sidewalk. Maybe... if it was slowed in its fall by vegetation, then chipmunks rolled it up the sidewalk 20-30 feet. Lots of maybes.

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    2. > Lots of maybes.

      Too many to even start responding with the funny and ridiculous! :-)

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