What a lazy bum you are!" -- young robin hitches a ride on a pitchfork

Name: What a lazy bum you are!" -- young robin hitches a ride on a pitchfork
Uploaded: 2018-02-28
Description: Outsiders might snicker, but New Jersey's official nickname is the Garden State. If you're one of the scoffers, just consider that there's more to New Jersey than what you've seen from the Interstate or in various television shows or movies.

Outsiders might snicker, but New Jersey's official nickname is the Garden State. If you're one of the scoffers, just consider that there's more to New Jersey than what you've seen from the Interstate or in various television shows or movies.

An adult sparrow with yellow and gray plumage perched on dry soil outdoors under natural daylight, suggesting late summer or early autumn.

Outsiders might snicker, but New Jersey’s official nickname is the Garden State. If you’re one of the scoffers, just consider that there’s more to New Jersey than what you’ve seen from the Interstate or in various television shows or movies.

In the video posted below, you’ll see a man doing some yard work at his home in Green Brook, in the north-central part of the Garden State. He manages to prepare a meal for a new friend using nothing more than a pitchfork!

In something that could come right out of a Disney movie, this gardener’s new friend is a robin! These birds are a common sight throughout their vast range, which stretches from Alaska to central Mexico. An adult robin is instantly recognizable thanks to its reddish-orange breast feathers (younger robins have a mottled plumage). While they have perfectly respectable senses of hearing and smell, robins generally locate their next meal by sight. Watch a robin carefully and you’ll see it repeatedly hop a few steps, look around for a potential meal, and then hop again. A nice, big, tender, juicy earthworm is the ideal feast, as far as a robin is concerned, anyway.

Our Garden Stater was busy turning up soil with his pitchfork when the bold robin dropped in on him. It didn’t take long for the two of them to establish a symbiotic relationship. His task was to help the bird find worms while the robin’s job was to be a morale-booster. The man found himself turning into a substitute mother robin, teaching the youngster how to find delicious worms and even dropping one in its mouth. “Look! Oh, come on, come on, come on! Over here! What a feast! What a lazy bum you are!” Was this robin really lazy? Well, it did accept a ride on the pitchfork!

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