American Robin - Welcome Song Bird In Any Garden © &2006

Turdus migratorious

The robin is known as a sign of spring, and it re-appears each spring here in Indiana sometime after the middle of February. They sometimes look bewildered as they search over snow covered lawns for worms. I have seen flocks of twenty or so American robins foraging in the leaves deep in the forest in their quest for worms in late winter and early spring.

The robin builds its nest of dried grass and mud and lays light blue eggs in low shrubs, trees and underbrush. One summer we had the luck of finding a robin’s nest just as the eggs hatched. Watching the young American robins push their way out of the shells was a fascinating experience. There were four eggs in the nest, one of which didn’t hatch. Sometimes two clutches of young are raised in a season, though there was only one raised in this nest. It could be because I was around it during the time the young birds were being fed, photographing and observing the young birds as they developed. It was around ten to twelve days when the robins were able to leave the nest and fly away.

The robin is a beneficial bird to have in the garden. It feasts on insects, worms and small berries. Watching them hop across a freshly mown lawn, stop, cock their head and them make a sudden grasp with their beak and come up with a worm is entertaining.

American robins spend the summer here, and disappear sometime in August heading for their winter homes in the southern parts of the continent, or Central America. They will return in the spring, the males arriving first to scope out breeding areas and claim them before other males.

The habitat of the American Robin is open woodland, fields and cities. They aren’t too picky, as long as they can find bugs and worms to eat.

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