At least that’s what I was taught and thought in grade school.
Turns out seeing a robin after New Year’s is about as good a predictor of the coming spring as a groundhog seeing its shadow, meaning not very good at all. Where they actually spend the winter is more complicated than the temperature and the calendar.
It’s true, robins often migrate great distances. Some have been documented flying from Alaska to Mississippi. It’s also a fact that robins are found in all 48 continental United States year round; they even spend winters in Minnesota and Canada. Some barely migrate at all, maybe 60 miles, maybe less.
But they don’t show up at traditional backyard winter bird feeders. When we don’t see them hopping around yards, it’s natural to assume they all flew south. The truth is, they follow the food, like just about everything else.
Worms and more
Robins are omnivores that eat about anything. Make that anything sort of squishy. In the spring and summer, they eat earthworms, the familiar picture we see in yards everywhere, as well as insects and berries. But seeds aren’t a favorite, so they have no reason to show up at most backyard bird feeders in the winter, where we might see them from our windows. However, if you venture outside, you’re way more likely to encounter them.
In the winter, robins become social birds, gathering in large groups in forests and stands of trees, often mixed with starlings. With earthworms inaccessible through frozen ground, they focus and search for fruits and berries. With the proliferation of the invasive Bradford or Callery pears, they don’t have to go too far find an abundance of ripe fruit.
Even with the lower nutritional value of the Bradford pears compared to native fruits and berries, proximity and availability mean they don’t have to migrate great distances, which has its own inherent risks. Staying put is good enough for the birds.
It also results in concentrated dispersal of Bradford pear seeds in those areas, accelerating the growth of that non-native species.
Springtime clock
While robins spend the winter feasting with friends, eventually the longer and warming days will set off the biological clocks. With an average daily temperature of 37 degrees, things get serious. Males will start setting up territories days or weeks before females return and are ready.
They sing their song - cheer-up, cheerily, cheer-up, cheerily - to announce their presence to both rival males, prospective mates and everyone else that spring is here. That’s the springtime robin’s announcement. Their propensity to be among the first birds singing in the predawn morning is welcomed by some and cursed by probably just as many.
Their proximity to the bedroom window when singing might determine which.
Home is where you make it
The male and female are monogamous during the breeding season. They’ll build nests in or on nearly anything, from house eaves to trees to garden shrubs to unused newspaper boxes (shame) next to mailboxes, but typically not especially far off the ground, less than 35 feet. There, the female will lay 3-4 “robin’s egg blue” eggs that are incubated for 13 days. The male and female share the work across 2-3 broods each year, from nest building to feeding, with the females doing most of the nest building and males feeding fledglings as she prepares the nest for the next brood.
This is the time when robins seem to be everywhere, all over yards and parks, pulling earthworms from the ground and chasing insects.
Then, around August, when it’s too late to have another brood that can mature before winter, they’ll group up again and abandon the yards for the trees and forests.
While they don’t usually mate for life, a pair that is successful at raising their young one year will sometimes reconnect the following spring, repeating the cycle. You can count on it.
Devin Meister is a local outdoors and wildlife enthusiast and has a blog called “Average Guy Outdoors.” He is an Ohio University graduate. Reach him at meister.devin@gmail.com.
MORE ONLINE
ODNR, American Robin: ohiodnr.gov/discover-and-learn/animals/birds/american-robin
Audubon Field Guide: audubon.org/field-guide/bird/american-robin
Are Robins Really a Sign of Spring: audubon.org/magazine/ask-kenn-are-american-robins-really-sign-of-spring
Robin Migration: explorer.audubon.org/explore/species/1055/american-robin/migration
A Starling in a Pear Tree: ecommons.udayton.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1346&context=uhp_theses
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