Who Really Killed Cock Robin?
Facts in Chapter 6: The Flight
p. 108: Saddle is imprinted on Mary Alice.
Songbirds don't imprint in quite the way geese do, but do follow a person as readily as their natural parent for many days after fledging, really identifying that person as "mother."
p. 111: Pressing his feathers to his body, stretching his neck, he (Saddle) assumed the pose of an alarmed bird that has seen an enemy.
This is an accurate description of a robin response when it is looking at a cat, jay, or crow.
p. 114: Sergeant Sears says, "No one is going to find one banding record. It takes hundreds."
During the years 1914-2000, 456,806 American robins were banded, and 14,409 of them were eventually refound.
p. 116: He (Saddle) can beg. That's just as good [as giving his feed call]. If the adults see that, they'll feed him.
Real baby robins shake their wings just as Saddle did. Adult robins that see a fledgling fluttering its wings like this, or who hear the begging call, have a powerful instinct to feed the baby, often even if it is not their own.
p. 117: Shaking his feathers, he settled down on his heels to roost, an action that tightened the tendons in his back toes and clamped him to the limb so he would not fall as he napped.
This is exactly why perching birds don't fall off branches while they are asleep.
p. 117: The tut-tut. Listen. He's being told to hide.
Robins often
make a "tut tut" call along with a "peek" call in
stages of low alarm, such as when people are nearby. Listen to this alarm
call. Does it sound familiar?
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