American Robin    Turdus migratorius

Migratory Status: Short-distance migrant

PIF Population Estimate: 310 000 000

Percent of western hemisphere population breeding in boreal forest: <25%

BAM Effective Detection Radius (m) : 90.98

PIF Maximum Detection Distance (m) : 200

Canadian BBS Population trend: 0.2 n.s. (0.0 to 0.5)

Life History

Hear the musical phrase “cheerily, cheer up, cheer up, cheerily, cheer up” for the first time and you know the American Robin is in town and with it the arrival of spring. One of the first and last songbirds to sing during the day, this red-breasted beauty is a classic North American bird. Thriving in both suburban and natural habitats, it’s one songbird everyone knows and will be sure to see.

The American Robin is North America’s largest thrush species. Males in definitive alternate (i.e., breeding) plumage have grayish-dark brown upperparts, black head, and reddish underparts. The bill is yellow, the throat is white with black streaks, and the eyes are bordered above and below with white crescents. Females are similar, but paler, in appearance.

American Robins breed in Alaska east across Canada to Newfoundland. Southward, this species can be found breeding into northern Florida and Mexico, making the American Robin one of the most widely spread thrushes in North America. Not all populations are migratory, but all northerly ones are. The winter range extends mostly south of Canada throughout the United States to central Mexico and along the Pacific Coast of Canada to southern Alaska.

In the spring and summer, a large portion of American Robins’ diet is soft invertebrates. Foraging on the ground, they use sight to hunt. In the fall and winter, fruit becomes more important in their diet. Outside of the breeding season, American Robins will congregate into large flocks for foraging and roosting, ranging from hundreds to thousands of birds in a flock.

Reference(s)

Sallabanks, R., and F. C. James. 1999. American Robin (Turdus migratorius), The Birds of North America Online, . A. Poole, Ed. Ithaca: Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology; Retrieved from The Birds of North America Online database: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/462