American Robin

Turdus migratorius

Whether it’s “The Early Bird Gets the Worm” or the first sign of spring, American Robins are prolific all the way across North America, and are often observed pulling up worms in your very own backyards. They’re well known for their bird feeder visitations, and their very loud first-thing-in-the-morning calls that wake us up every spring. Just because we see them so much in urban areas, doesn’t mean that they aren’t found in forests and mountain areas as well. And although robins are considered harbingers of spring, many American Robins spend the whole winter in their breeding range, so you’re much less likely to see them as they spend more time roosting in trees and less time in your yard.

Often used as a reference size for other birds, American Robins are fairly large songbirds with a large, round body, long legs, and fairly long tail. Robins are the largest North American thrushes. They are gray-brown birds with their distinctive orange underparts and dark heads. In flight, a white patch on the lower belly and under the tail can be seen. Compared with males, females have paler heads that contrast less with their gray back. Western populations are often paler than eastern populations and have almost no white at the tail corners.

If you have ever seen an American Robin from far away and weren’t sure what it was, there are some behaviors to help you determine if it is a robin – American Robins are industrious birds that bound across lawns or stand erect, beak tilted upward, to survey their surroundings. When alighting, they habitually flick their tails downward several times.

American Robins eat large numbers of both invertebrates and fruit. In spring and summer they eat large numbers of earthworms as well as insects and some snails. (They have rarely been recorded eating shrews, small snakes, and aquatic insects.) Robins also eat an enormous variety of fruits, including chokecherries, hawthorn, dogwood, and sumac fruits, and juniper berries. One study suggested that robins may try to round out their diet by selectively eating fruits that have bugs in them.

Female robins choose the nest sites, which are typically on one or several horizontal branches hidden in or just below a layer of dense leaves. Nests are typically in the lower half of a tree, although they can be built as high as the treetop. American Robins also nest in gutters, eaves, on outdoor light fixtures, and other structures. In western prairies, American Robins may build their nests on the ground or in thickets, while in Alaska they sometimes nest on buildings or cliffs.

Did You Know? Robins eat a lot of fruit in fall and winter. When they eat honeysuckle berries exclusively, they sometimes become intoxicated.

-Samantha Zeiner, Administrative Coordinator, Friends of Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge