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Name: Shirley A.
Status: educator
Age: 50s
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 5/25/2004
Question:
Do Robins mate for life? I have robins nesting in my yard every year in the same spots. Are these robins the same ones year after year? Do the offspring come back each spring to their birth site?

Replies:
No, not necessarily. Courtship is part of the spring ritual, and while a pair of birds may stay in the same area and renew their bonds one year to the next, another bird mightreplace one of the previous pair, or a completely new pair might move in. Good territory is often contested. Young birds may well return to the general area where they were raised, and if the territory is available use it, but they must enter the competition for space with others. If they can't find space they may look elsewhere for nesting territory.

J. Elliott

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