American Robin Nesting: Eggs, Nest Sites and Season

From April into July, starting later the farther north they live. In nest records from more than 8,500 nests, most robins were feeding their first brood in the last 10 days of April in the Southeast, by mid-May in New England, and in late May or early June in the Rockies and central Alaska.¹

So when do robins lay eggs? First eggs appear in early April in places such as Ithaca, New York, and Madison, Wisconsin, and laying goes on into late July. Farther north, around Churchill, Manitoba, laying starts in late May.¹

Usually 5 to 25 ft up, on a horizontal branch of a tree or shrub, and rarely on the ground or as high as 70 ft. Robins also nest on ledges of houses, barns and bridges. They also use gutters, eaves and outdoor light fixtures.

The first nests of spring are often low in evergreens, which give cover before the leaves are out; later nests are often higher in leafy trees.

The female builds it, usually in 5 to 7 days. She presses dead grass and twigs into a cup with the wrist of one wing, plasters it with mud carried from worm castings, and lines it with fine dry grass. A replacement nest can go up in 2 to 3 days.

The finished nest is 6 to 8 in across and 3 to 6 in high, heavy and solid.

A clutch is three or four eggs, sometimes five; a nest with more than five probably has two females laying in it. The eggs are sky blue and unmarked, rarely spotted or white, about 1.1 to 1.2 in (2.8 to 3 cm) long and 0.8 in (2.1 cm) wide, and weigh about 6.3 g.¹²

The female lays one egg a day, unusually late in the morning for a songbird.

The color is biliverdin, a blue-green pigment the female lays down in the shell as the egg forms. It is one of only two pigments long known in bird eggshells.³⁴

The blue may also be a message to the male. In an experiment with artificial eggs, males shown vividly colored eggs fed their chicks more in the first days after hatching: three times as much at 3 days old, though the difference had gone by day 6.⁵¹ For other species with blue eggs, see what birds have blue eggs.

Only the female incubates, for 12 to 14 days. She often starts after the second egg, and the eggs hatch over 2 to 3 days. Each chick takes about a day to break out, and the female carries the shells away.

The chicks leave the nest at about 13 days old. Every stage, with photos, is in baby American Robins.

Most pairs raise two broods a season, sometimes three, especially in the South. About a week after the first brood leaves, the female may lay again while the male looks after the fledglings.

Do robins use the same nest for a second brood? Sometimes, with or without a new lining, but more often they build a new nest for each brood, occasionally right on top of the old one.

NestWatch's design for robins is an open nest shelf rather than an enclosed box. Put it 5 to 25 ft up on a building or post, in a sheltered spot under the eaves or over a light fixture, and space shelves at least 65 ft apart. Clear out the old nest once the young have fledged.⁶

Leave it until the young have gone. The American Robin is protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which makes it illegal to destroy a nest with eggs or chicks in it, or while the young still depend on it. Once the nest is empty and no longer in use, you can remove it.⁷ From the first egg to the chicks leaving takes about four weeks.

Is it illegal to take or hatch robin eggs? Yes: collecting or keeping the nests or eggs of protected birds is illegal without a federal permit.

This guide covers the American Robin of North America. For the European Robin of Britain and Europe, see Robin nesting; for how the two birds differ, see American Robin vs European Robin. For the bird itself, its song, food and lifespan, see the American Robin guide.

1. Vanderhoff, E. N., Pyle, P., Patten, M. A., Sallabanks, R., James, F. C. (2020). American Robin (Turdus migratorius), version 1.0. Birds of the World (P. G. Rodewald, editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology. doi:10.2173/bow.amerob.01
2. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. American Robin: Life History. All About Birds. Accessed 6 October 2026. Source
3. Hamchand, R., Hanley, D., Prum, R. O., Brückner, C. (2020). Expanding the eggshell colour gamut: uroerythrin and bilirubin from tinamou (Tinamidae) eggshells. Scientific Reports 10: 11264. doi:10.1038/s41598-020-68070-7
4. Hanley, D., Grim, T., Cassey, P., Hauber, M. E. (2015). Not so colourful after all: eggshell pigments constrain avian eggshell colour space. Biology Letters 11(5): 20150087. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2015.0087
5. English, P. A., Montgomerie, R. (2011). Robin's egg blue: does egg color influence male parental care?. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 65(5): 1029-1036. doi:10.1007/s00265-010-1107-9
6. NestWatch. Right Bird, Right House: American Robin. NestWatch, Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Accessed 6 October 2026. Source
7. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Bird nests. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Accessed 6 October 2026. Source
8. National Audubon Society. American Robin. Audubon Guide to North American Birds (text adapted from Kenn Kaufman, Lives of North American Birds). Accessed 6 October 2026. Source