From egg to first flight. Watch baby bird grow in 80 seconds

Sunday, December 6, 2015, 8:05 PM - It was quite the emotional goodbye, as Gordon Walley watched a baby robin leave its nest.

From egg to first flight, the Calgary resident manged to capture the bird mature over the course of 18 days.

Walley's mother passed away in June, 2014 and about three days after the funeral, he went to sit on the back-deck, a place where he would often spend time with his mother. He noticed a robins nest.

"Mom wanted to be reincarnated as a bird, she always said that. It was a big surprise, I couldn't believe it."

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Day-after-day Walley would watch the mother robin feeding and taking care of her baby. About 20 days later they left the nest. 

"It really helped with the grieving and this year they returned."

Walley received a camera as a gift from his sister and thought it would be a good idea to film the birds this year. 

He would mount the camera, leaving it running  for about four hours everyday, while maintaining a good distance to make sure he wasn't bothersome.

While it was a lot of work, Walley says he found comfort in the project.

"I started learning the behaviour a little bit. It was day five I believe when the baby's head popped up."

It was on day 17 that Walley thought the baby was going to take off.

"I went to bed thinking I'm going to miss is. So I got up really early the next morning, set the camera up and went back to bed."

Sure enough when he went to check on the bird, it was no longer in the nest.

"I was sniffling a little bit. I teared up and I still miss it. You get attached after 18 days, that's for sure. It could have been my mom. It was my way of coping with my mother's death."

Walley posted the video on YouTube in mid-November and it has since gained over 5,000 views.

"People love it, they think it's great. It was a wonderful opportunity. It's not everyday you can watch this sort of thing from start to finish."

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