What's it?

[Steve Bein]

In an abandoned farmhouse in Nebraska or S. Dakota during a storm chase trip, I found this nest with live birds, but unmoving nestlings. There have been suggestions they are American Robins or Says Phoebe. Or who knows, someone, I hope. This is the place to find out, so please comment. I did see a glimpse of a brown bird flying away when I walked in, but too fast for me to identify or even guess.
Thanks,
Steve

[John Chardine]

Hi Steve- I don't know the answer but I'll ask a couple of colleague who might, and I hope a BPNer might know!

[Jim Neiger]

Steve,

I think they are baby American Robins.

[David Smith]

Steve,

I think they are baby American Robins.

I agree with Jim.... Baby American Robins..

Dave

[Dan Brown]

Hi Steve. I still think that you have baby Say's Phoebes here. The rufous wingbars, nest, and nest location all look good for Say's. Robin's should be showing lots of spots, even in the nest, IMO.

[Dave Irons]

Greetings All,

Sometimes it is easier to ID the nest than the birds. Birds are highly routinized when it comes to where they build their nest and what they use to construct it. While Am. Robins may build their nests on structures occasionally (I actually saw one in a carport recently), they more often place their it in a tree with some degree of cover. As for construction and materials, their nests are usually a fairly neat, symmetrical grassy cup (sometimes with a fair bit of mud) that has a bit of a woven look to it. As for Say's Phoebes, they almost always build their nest on or around man-made structures and their somewhat disheveled nests are made out an assortment of stuff that does not include much grass and to my recollection little if any mud. I once saw a phoebe nest on the head of a mop that was leaning up against one of the rental trailers at the Malheur Field Station in se. Oregon.

As for this nest, its construction, location, and contents all suggest Says Phoebes. The young birds are too dark overall, show no real spotting or white mottling that one sees on nestling/fledgling American Robins. Also the tawny salmon orange tones in the wings of these birds is color that I would expect to see in the wings of a Say's Phoebe and not in the wings of an American Robin.

If you visit the BirdFellow gallery for Am. Robin http://www.birdfellow.com/birds/amer...us-migratorius and scroll to the 3rd and 4th pages of thumbnails there are some pictures of both recent fledglings and nests.

We don't have photos of a Say's Phoebe nest photo in our galleries, but I found this one online: http://bit.ly/ro8tm5 Notice the similarities in nest structure and the appearance of the youngsters:

Dave Irons
Content Editor BirdFellow.com