Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS

THE SONG BIRDS

THE THRUSHES

American Robin

We must not omit full mention of the American Robin (P. migratorius), which is beyond question the most abundant and best-known of all our Thrushes, ranging throughout eastern North America to the Rocky Mountains, including eastern Mexico and Alaska, and nesting from Virginia and Kansas northward to the Arctic coast. The majority spend the winter throughout the Southern States, but a few more hardy or venturesome than their fellows are found at this season in the dense swamps of the Northern States and even southern Canada. In western North America, from the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains westward and south to Lower California and the tablelands of Mexico, the place is taken by the Western Robin (P. m. propinqtia), which differs mainly in the absence of a white tip to the outer tail-feathers.
As Mr. Henry Nehrling well says: “None of our birds has become so esteemed a favorite with the American people as the Robin. The Pilgrim Fathers of Massachusetts called this Thrush the Robin, or Robin Redbreast, because it reminded them of the affectionate and beloved Robin of their English home, and the love of the latter bird together with its name passed over to the somewhat similarly colored Thrush of their new country.”It appears to have been originally a true forest bird, but with the advent of civilization it abandoned in large measure its shyness and seclusion, and now comes freely and fearlessly about habitations, taking up its abode in orchards, gardens, and lawns, but it may also be found everywhere, in meadow and marsh, on hills and in valleys, and even high up in the mountains. It is one of the first to return from its winter home, often arriving in the north long before the snow and ice have disappeared, and with its bursts of wild, exultant music enlivens the otherwise dreary landscape and proclaims the advent of spring. Although it has lost or laid aside much of its original shyness, it still retains its former sagacity and vigilance, and we may see it running rapidly over the lawn for a few yards, with nervously dropping wings and vibrating tail, then stopping suddenly and standing erect and motionless for a few moments on the outlook for possible danger. The vocabulary of the Robin is extensive and varied, notes of interrogation, suspicion, alarm, and anger being apparently clearly discernible; while its song, which is usually uttered from some commanding position, such as a lofty tree-top, is given with such earnestness and persistence as to compensate for its alleged lack of sweetness and variety.

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