We have a big green,fake wreath on the side of the house. Leave it up all year because of the birds. Usually it's been house finches nesting in it, but twice we've had robins nest and raise a family. The second year, she built a new nest layered right on top of the old one she had built the year before. This year, we took the nests out. Between the finches and the robins, and the spiders and dust and bird poop and all, it needed a cleaning, badly. Plus, last year, Mrs Robin nabbed a stray paper towel from the yard or roadside somewhere and incorporated it into her nest, so we had this ratty dirty paper towel hanging out of our wreath all year. So far this year, we just seem to have the house finches nesting, perhaps the robins were upset that they couldn't simply add on, and would have to start from scratch?

Just so you know, we've seen the robins lay up to 7 eggs, then kept finding a few dumped out down onto the ground. We put them back a couple of times (nature center said it was okay to do) but she just kept knocking them out. When babies hatched, it was obvious 7 would have been WAY too many. We think there were 4 hatched, but suddenly one day there were only 3. Which grew until they were so big they could barely fit up there, until one day they were gone and the nest was empty. Baby robins and parents were seen around the yard for quite a few weeks, first pretty much just on the ground, then in the lower bushes, then higher, then "gone". Not really gone, just indistinguishable from the adult robins in the area, as we had an abnormally high number of robins hanging around.

It's very cool.