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American Robin

Status Common in summer, uncommon in winter. Breeds. Spring arrivals first appear in late March (average 22 March, earliest 13 March, apart from an evidently newly appearing flock in Halifax on 6 March 1980). It is abundant from early April to late October or early November. Dates of fall departure are difficult to determine because stragglers from the last waves of migrants, which pass through in early November, elect to overwinter here in numbers that vary considerably from year to year. It is not unusual to see huge flocks of migrating robins in both spring and fall but particularly in the fall, when thousands sometimes move en masse.

Description Length: 21.5-26.5 cm. Adult male: Top of head and tail blackish gray, the tail with white spots at tips of outer feathers; small white spots above, below and in front of eye; rest of upperparts brownish gray; underparts bright rufous, except throat which is white, striped with black, and lower belly which is white (in autumn, as early as 1 October, the breast feathers of many are tipped with white); bill bright yellow in spring, dusky yellow in fall. Adult female: Very similar but colours generally lighter, showing less contrast; less black on head. Juvenile: Light buff breast, sometimes almost white, heavily spotted with black; back brownish gray, spotted with grayish white; throat white and unstreaked.

Breeding Nest: The foundation is of coarse grass or twigs, on which rests a cup shaped form, moulded to shape by the bird's breast, of mud lined with soft grass. Very rarely, I have seen nests that lacked mud, probably so because no mud was available in the nesting territory. Nests are usually placed at various heights in tree crotches but many other locations are chosen. For example, a nest examined on 7 May 1933 at Wolfville was neatly arranged in a slight depression on a level piece of ground between apple trees in an orchard; on 11 May 1934 another was built on the ground within a few metres of the previous year's nest. Despite the vulnerability of these nests, the young in both were successfully raised. The most unusual nesting site was on an iron beam of a railway trestle on a bridge near Middleton, Annapolis County. On 28 May 1915 the sitting bird flushed underfoot from this nest, exposing the usual four eggs. The nest was about 1 m below the rails over which trains roared several times a day.

Eggs: 3-5, usually 4; greenish blue. Laying begins in late April and continues throughout the summer as successive nestings follow, a pair sometimes raising three broods. An early nesting was noted on 11 April 1951 at Wolfville, when a female was seen gathering material, and a late nesting was observed on 23 August 1955 when a female was seen feeding young about ready to fly. There is a lapse of approximately 10 days from the time the first straw is placed until the completed nest contains the usual four eggs.

Range Breeds in Alaska and all across Canada, north to about the limit of trees and south through the United States to northern Mexico. A few winter in southern Canada but most travel further south.

Remarks The robin is one of the best known and most popular birds of garden, farm and countryside. It competes boldly and effectively with us for cherries during a brief period in the summer, but there are relatively few, aside from commercial growers of small fruits, who are not tolerant of this practice. Its return in spring after the long and dreary winter months is eagerly awaited by young and old, many vying with one another to be the first to see one.

During winter 1954-55, four robins fed regularly on hawthorn berries in my garden. One attempted a feeble song on 28 February. They left on 15 March and were not seen thereafter. The first spring arrival, recognized as such by its behaviour, appeared on 23 March that year. Wickerson Lent reports that, during winter 1964-65, robins were present in larger numbers than usual about Brier Island and were commonly seen feeding along the shoreline in the company of Purple Sandpipers.

Turdus migratorius migratorius is the common breeding subspecies. Turdus migratorius nigrideus, the race that commonly breeds in Newfoundland and on the Ungava Peninsula, is slightly larger than T. m. migratorius, has a deeper red breast and the dark colouring of its head extends well down its back. That it passes through Nova Scotia as a transient is substantiated by the number of birds that have been collected here. Occasionally, however, robins with exceptionally dark red breasts and dark backs are found nesting here. Two of these I collected at Wolfville: one taken on 13 June 1943 was sent to Austin L. Rand, and the other, collected on 23 May 1957, went to W. Earl Godfrey. Rand (1948) determined my specimen and a number of other extraterritorial specimens brought to his attention to be "probably nigrideus-like variants which occur with breeding populations of T. m. migratorius." Since that pronouncement, however, a significant number of "nigrideus-like" robins have been recorded here during the breeding season, and my opinion is that the frequency with which they occur suggests a slight intergradation between the two races.