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
> 
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