Bird of the Month: American Robin

American Robin. Photo by Jeff Bryant.

By Roger Digges, CCAS Vice-President

Since most people can easily identify March’s bird of the month, I thought I’d skip the usual description and answer a few questions about this very recognizable bird.

How did the American Robin get its name?

More than 300 years ago, European colonists named this new bird (new to them; Indigenous people knew robins well) after one they’d left behind on the eastern side of the Atlantic. Although the American Robin is twice as large as the European robin, a member of a different bird family (thrushes rather than Old World flycatchers), has a different color scheme (gray over orange rather than brown over orange), and eats worms and fruit rather than insects, its orange breast and white eye ring must have made people who were months away from home by sea feel as though they’d brought a piece of England (or France or the Netherlands) with them.

Where do our robins go in winter?

It depends. Many robins migrate south, some as far as the Gulf. Although migration can be dangerous, if it’s too cold here and food and open water aren’t available, flying south is worth the risk. Many other robins stay here for the winter. Rather than migrate, those robins change their behavior. Like many other songbirds, they form large flocks (instead of remaining in their mating pairs and defending territory). They switch from a diet of earthworms and other invertebrates to fruit that is available in winter, like crabapples and the berries of hawthorn, holly, and juniper bushes.

So, where have our robins been? Possibly in Louisiana or Mississippi. Then again, they may have been in the nearest woods just down the road from you, chowing down on berries, and, rarely, eating so many they became intoxicated.

If you would like to see a visual representation of the movement of robins during the year, click on this link: https://science.ebird.org/en/status-and-trends/species/amerob/abundance-map-weekly. I found it quite fascinating.

How can I tell the difference between male and female robins?

In general, males are brighter with a deeper rusty breast and a darker head. Females have more subdued colors. The best way to tell them apart is that the male will be singing, often from an exposed or partially exposed perch, while the female is far less visible as she builds her nest and incubates her three to five sky-blue eggs.

How can I attract robins to my yard?

The most important thing to not do is use chemicals in your yard, which kill earthworms and other invertebrates, or plants the birds depend on for nesting materials, or the robins themselves. According to the American Bird Conservancy, about a billion pounds of pesticides and herbicides are sprayed or scattered in the United States each year. Robins are far more likely to visit healthy yards with available food, yards which are safe for them to visit. Not allowing cats to run free makes a yard more inviting to robins as well.

You can also attract robins at ground or platform feeders by offering them mealworms, fruit, hulled sunflower seeds or peanut hearts, and suet. My wife, Cathy, and I were fortunate enough to be able to add a water feature to our yard a number of years ago. The sound of running water and the availability of open water attracted robins to our yard when it was below zero this past January. A heated bird bath with a small fountain may be just as attractive.

While robins are pretty clever at creating nesting sites (sometimes in places you don’t want them!), you can make it easier for them by building a fairly simple nest structure for the female to use. You can download a plan for one from https://nestwatch.org/learn/all-aboutbirdhouses/birds/american-robin.

What if I don’t have a yard?

During the spring and summer, you can find robins almost anywhere in our area where there are lawns and/or trees. City parks and forest preserves provide great habitat.

How are robins doing?

Quite well. Their numbers have slowly increased over the past half century so that there are now about 370 million birds according to Partners in Flight.