American Robins are Everywhere

     Yesterday, in mid-February, I was driving here and there to do errands.  And as I drove, I saw a few flocks of attractive American robins in different places.  Two groups were feeding on crab apple fruits, or berries on bushes, and the third was drinking and bathing in a little suburban brook.  It occurred to me that I had been seeing a lot of robins in the past several winters here in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere.  And that I see many robins throughout each year, almost exclusively in human-made habitats, particularly in farmland and suburban areas.  Because of their ability to adapt to human-made conditions, robins are almost everywhere, in abundance, the year around, in North America.  They owe their abundance to our activities, and their being able to adapt to those activities and the habitats they create.
     American robins are a kind of thrush.  Most thrushes in North America nest in deep forests.  Those species have declined in numbers as forest acres decreased.  But robins probably originated in woodland openings of successional growth, and when eastern North American forests were removed for cropland, robin populations increased dramatically in ever-expanding clearings.  Success of failure of any species is mostly due to habitat. 
     Today most robins nest in newer suburban areas, an ever-growing, human-made habitat, with their younger trees and shrubbery, just as they did/do in woodland clearings.  We see robins running and stopping, running and stopping across short-grass lawns across much of North America in search of earthworms and other types of invertebrates.  And we see them feeding their young in their nurseries of grass and mud in young trees and bushes and the newly fledged youngsters on our lawns begging their parents for food.  Some of those young robins are preyed on by hawks, cats, crows and other predators.  Accipitor hawks catch some adult robins.
     When robin pairs have raised two broods of young by the end of July, most robins disappear from our lawns.  They form flocks of a score or more birds, both young and older birds, in fields and along hedgerows between fields.  There they feed on invertebrates and berries and grow fat through autumn to better survive either migration or the coming winter in the north.  One can spot the younger robins by the dark spots remaining on their rusty-colored chests.
     Some robins do go south to avoid northern winters, but many others stay north all winter.  These are the robins I enjoy seeing the most.
     In winter, local groups of robins dwell mostly in older suburbs with their many planted coniferous trees that shelter robins from predators and cold winds at night and their numerous deciduous, berry-bearing shrubs and trees that provide food for robin gatherings through that harshest of seasons.  Some congregations of robins feed on berries in hedgerows, but retreat to suburban conifers for the night.   
     The beautiful robins in winter are a joy for us to see.  Their presence doesn't claim that spring is here like many people think they do.  But they do represent the tenacity of life when conditions are rough.  And they provide life, beauty and daily activities to our lawns in winter, beauty and activities that lift many a human emotion weary of winter's hardships.   
     By the beginning of March, more flocks of robins from farther south pour into Lancaster County and much of the north.  These birds are harbingers of the vernal season.  They run across lawns looking for earthworms and other invertebrates.  But if the weather turns severely cold or snow again covers the ground, the robins will turn again to eating berries and crab apple fruits.
     And by the end of March, the striking male American robins begin to sing to claim nesting territories and attract females to them for mating and raising offspring.  Spring is undeniably here.
     Look for the lovely American robins through the year in much of North America.  They are a hardy, adaptable, beautiful species of native thrushes that benefit from human-made habitats.