American Robins: A Sign of Spring

American Robins:

1. A North American songbird (Turdus migratorius) having a rust-red breast and gray and black upper plumage. Also called robin redbreast.
2. A small songbird (Erithacus rubecula) of Eurasia and Africa having olive-brown upper plumage and a conspicuous orange breast and face. Also called robin redbreast, ruddock.
3. Any of various birds resembling a robin.

Introduction

  The winter has been awful in suburban Washington, DC. The first glimmers of spring—blooming crocuses and early morning song of American Robins and Mourning Doves—have revived hope for better things to come. "The American Robin is one of the most well-known birds in North America, often seen as a symbol of spring. As spring arrives, robins become regular visitors to lawns, searching for food. This article will explore the habits, breeding characteristics, and other fascinating facts about the American Robin."

Distribution of the American Robin

  American robins spend most of the year scattered around the US and Mexico, but each time spring rolls around they pack up and head north towards Canada and Alaska for a little summer vacation. There, they do their best to find a mate, put together a nest and raise a family, fattening up on insects, berries and worms while they’re at it. They live in woods, woodlands, gardens, parks, etc. The population is large. Usually alone or in pairs, they live in groups during the breeding season, and often inhabit with other birds in winter. After migrating to the tropics, most of them live in grasslands and shrubs in central North America.

Diet and Foraging Habits

  American robins often forage for worms, invertebrates, and mature berries in grasslands and haystacks. Monogamy, female and male birds build nests together, with grass and mud nesting, lining with grass, but in rainy areas, some nest in buildings or rock crevices, females contribute more. Each litter has 3-7 blue eggs, occasionally white, no spots, occasionally brown stains. Eggs ranged from ellipse to short ellipse 2.8×2.0cm.Females hatched eggs for 12-14 days, and chicks lived in nests for 14-16 days. Females fed more chicks. Incubated 2-3 nests in the south each year, less in the north. Male birds defend nests and chicks, especially in agricultural areas and grasslands, to prevent human interference.

Migration and Non-Migratory Behavior

   Migration is a complex behavior that involves timing, navigation, and other survival skills. With these warmer seasons in the Arctic kicking off earlier due to climate change, scientists at Columbia University began to wonder what impact this would have on the migration habits of the American robin. To find some answers, the research team turned to Canada’s Slave Lake, which acts as a pit stop for the birds on their journey north. Researchers have been monitoring the migration patterns of birds at Slave Lake for a quarter of a century, with visual surveys and netting censuses revealing that robins are heading north around five days earlier per decade since 1994, or a total of 12 days earlier now than they did back then. To understand the reasons behind this, the Columbia researchers took things one step further and equipped 55 robins with tiny GPS devices. This GPS data of the birds’ movements was able to be connected with weather data on temperatures, snow depth, winds, rain and other elements that could impact their migration behavior. This analysis revealed that the robins starting moving north earlier when the conditions were warmer and drier, with snow coverage a particularly important factor.

    “The one factor that seemed the most consistent was snow conditions and when things melt. That’s very new,” says lead author Ruth Oliver. “We’ve generally felt like birds must be responding to when food is available – when snow melts and there are insects to get at – but we’ve never had data like this before.” The team says this is the first study to reveal how environmental conditions are shifting migration patterns along this route. This kind of information can help them develop predictive models of how the birds will respond as the climate continues to change.

    “Because the timing of migration can indirectly influence the reproductive success of an individual, understanding controls over the timing of migratory events is important,” Natalie Boelman, a coauthor on the paper. From here, the team hopes to map out the birds’ entire migration path, rather than from a midway point, using tissue samples collected during the GPS fitting that could reveal clues about their earlier whereabouts.

Do Robins Really Return in Spring?

    In March every year, when the bright spring comes, swarms of robins drill out of palm trees and pear trees in the Gulf of Mexico and migrate northward. Batch after batch, lasting for several weeks, the total number of more than one billion, like a dark cloud over the Mississippi River.

  Then they will be divided into two roads: the west along the Suri River north, across the plains, the Rocky Mountains, Canada, has been flying to Alaska; the East Road flew northeast along the Ohio River to Canada. Sometimes, the temperature on the road plummets, and the robin will turn back to the warm area for temporary avoidance. They travel about thirty to fifty kilometers a day, stopping from time to time to hunt for insects in the fields. Most robins live for a long time, but a small number of females fly south to avoid the cold in winter, even as far as Spain. In Scandinavia, Russian robins will fly to Britain for winter.

Song and Breeding Behavior

    The beautiful robin is loved by bird lovers because of its colorful feathers and tactful singing. Robin robins sing like flutes from early to late in the breeding season, even at night. In winter, the female bird will find another place to feed the bird, while the male bird will stay in the old nest and live in the same place throughout the year. Love to nest in crevices or small holes or even artificial materials such as discarded kettles or building shelves.

Raising Chicks and Fledgling Growth

    During the breeding season, female birds build nests alone and are generally hidden in dense vegetation. The structure of the nest is dome-shaped, with leaves, moss, feathers, and lined with small roots and hair. Each brood produces 5 to 7 white eggs with red spots. The incubation lasted from 11 to 14 days. After incubation, the birds were fed by adult birds for 12 to 15 days before the birds left the nest. The feather color of the robin was not significant. After flying out of the nest for 2 to 3 months, the red feathers began to grow on the chin. After another 2 to 3 months, the bright feather features gradually formed. Due to the high mortality rate in the first year, the average lifespan of a robin is only 1.1 years, but if it is successfully passed one year, the lifespan will be longer. It has been recorded that a robin survived for 12 years.