American Robin |
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Scientific Name: Turdus migratorious
Family: Turdidae, Thrushes
Description: 9-11" (23-28 cm). Gray above, brick red below. Head and tail black in males, dull gray in females. Young birds are spotted below.
Habitat: Towns, gardens, open woodlands, and agricultural land.
Nesting: 3-5 blue-green eggs in a well-made cup of mud reinforced with grass and twigs, lined with softer grasses, and placed in a tree or on a ledge or windowsill. Robins usually have 2 broods a season.
Range: Breeds from Alaska east across continent to Newfoundland and south to California, Texas, Arkansas, and South Carolina. Winters north to British Columbia and Newfoundland.
Voice: Song is a series of rich caroling notes, rising and falling in pitch: cheer-up, cheerily, cheer-up, cheerily.
Discussion: Robins originally nested in forests; where they still
do so they are much shyer than the robins of the dooryard. They breed only
rarely in the Deep South, where they prefer large shade trees on lawns.
Although considered a harbinger of spring, robins often winter in the northern
states, where they frequent cedar bogs and swamps and are not usually noticed
by a casual observer, except when they gather in large roosts, often containing
thousands of birds. The mainstay of the American Robin is earthworms. It
hunts on lawns, standing stock-still with head cocked to one side as though
listening for its prey but actually discovering it by sight.
Most Images and all information was taken from enature.com