Many birds drop egg shells and fecal sacs away from the nest. It is believed they do this to keep a nest clean of parasites and flies and also to leave as little sign for a ground predator to find the nest. -DB Sent from my iPhone > On Apr 18, 2015, at 1:43 PM, Laura Dornan <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > While birding the woodland trail behind my house this morning, I observed something I have never seen or heard of before. A female robing flew to a tree about 30 feet from me and perched about on a branch about 5-6 feet above the ground. She was facing away from me and I saw her raise her drop an egg which landed on the ground below. There was no nest anywhere around that I could see. After she flew off I walked over to confirm what I thought I saw and there was a broken robin egg under the branch. A male robin then flew to the same tree. > Has anyone else seen a bird just "lay" an egg where it would drop to the ground or have any thoughts on why a bird would do this. The only thing I can think of is that the nest was destroyed and when a bird has to lay an egg, she has to lay it NOW, nest or no nest. But there have been no storms in which a nest might be destroyed for over a week---plenty of time to rebuild. > Laura DornanLouisville > > ______________________________________________________________________ > > Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. > Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php. > Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. > > > You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: > listserv.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS > Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask] ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: listserv.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]