An Activity Guide About the Songbirds
of
British Columbia
Family MUSCICAPIDAE: Thrushes & Relatives
American Robin (Turdus migratorius)
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FIELD MARKS
The American Robin is a very common bird in British Columbia, as well as
the rest of North America. In some parts of the province. The male robin
has a black head with white marks around its eyes. The rest of its upperparts
are dark-grey with reddish-orange underparts. On the west coast it has white
tips on its tail. It has a yellow bill. The female looks similar but is
paler. Approximate length: 25 cm
FOOD
The robin mainly eats insects, earthworms and berries. We can often look
outside our windows and watch it as it searches our lawns for earthworms.
A large part of the robins diet is of wild berries and small garden fruits.
They sometimes eat spiders and snails.
HABITAT
The American Robin can be found on farmland and open fields with woodlots
or thickets for shelter, in residential areas with grassy lawns and ornamental
trees and around forest openings or edges. The robin is much more common
around human habitation than in forests. The northern population migrates
south for the winter season.
NESTING
Nests are usually built by females on a horizontal branch of either a coniferous
or deciduous tree or bush, sometimes in nooks of buildings. Artificial platforms
can be built and placed under sheltered parts of a building as nest platforms
for robins. Their nests are cups of twigs, grass and mud. They are lined
with grasses and other soft material. The female lays four plain pale-blue
eggs.
STATUS
Very common and widespread.
Located at:
675 Belleville Street,
Victoria, British Columbia,
CANADA
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uses bird feeders
