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CONSERVATION KIDS CORNER

AMERICAN ROBIN

The American robin is a symbol of spring. Its name in Spanish is "mirlo primavera" which means spring blackbird.

Behaviors

Voice: The robin's most common call is a musical whistled phrase, "cheerily, cheer up, cheer up, cheerily, cheer up." They can also have a sharp "chup." The robin is one of the first birds to sing in the morning and is one of the last to be heard at night. The male is most vocal, usually singing from high points in the morning and during courtship.

Diet: Though we think of robins as eating mainly earthworms, in fact earthworms and other invertebrates make up about 40 percent of its diet. Most of their food is fruit. They find earthworms by sight rather than by sound.They eat invertebrates mainly in the spring, summer and early morning, but rely on fruit later in the day, in the fall and winter. Their preferred fruits are grapes, cherries, tomatoes, pokeberries, mistletoe berries, rowan berries and in southern states, the fruits of the Sabal Palm. Robins also eat beetles, grasshoppers and other insects. Occasionally, robins eat small snakes and shrews, and they sometimes go on the seashore at low tide for molluscs or in water to pick up fish fry.

Habitat Type: Robins prefer an open area near trees. It has become more common in the prairies as trees are planted there. It will nest in most places except marshes.

Range: North America

Hunting: Robins mostly eat from the ground or perch in trees to gather fruit. They also catch insects while flying.

Mating: Robins generally remain together for the breeding season, but often mate with other individuals the following year. Breeding adults return to the same general area each year, but young birds usually nest elsewhere. When courting, the male will sometimes feed the female or they will approach each other and touch their beaks which are open wide. Males also sing to the females. Peak breeding season is April to July.

Nesting: The female makes a cup-shaped nest of thick mud reinforced with grass, leaves, twigs, paper or twine. The inside is lined with grass. She shapes the nest with her feet, beak and body. It takes her from two to six days to make the nest, with an average of 180 trips per day to find materials. Males sometimes help gather nesting materials but the female chooses the site and builds the nest. Nests are built less than 35 feet off the ground. Sometimes a robin will recycle a nest from a previous year.

Eggs: Commonly a female robin has two "broods" or nests of eggs. Sometimes she produces three. Typically each brood contains three to four eggs. The eggs are a distinctive color of blue which is known as "robin's-egg blue." White eggs are uncommon. The female robin incubates her eggs for about 12 days. She sits on the eggs for 40-minute periods. Then she stands up, turns the eggs and flies off to feed or for a break. The male stands guard and sometimes sits on the eggs.

Chicks: The chicks are fed by both parents. They eat about 35 to 40 meals a day. The parents keep the nests clean by carrying away or eating the chicks' fecal sacs. The father becomes more involved as the chicks get older because the mother has left to build a new nest for the next brood. When they are about 13 days old, the chicks leave the nest. They stay in their parents' territory for a few weeks but leave after about a month.

Migration: The peak migrations are March in spring and October in fall. Spring migration is relatively direct but during fall migration, robins wander more, following the availability of food. Some robins do not migrate but breed where they spend the winter.

Wintering: Robins roost, or collect in flocks. Males do this year round, but the females and young join them during the winter. Roosts can get as big as 250,000 birds, but normally they are 20 to 200 birds. Sometimes they roost with other species, like European starlings and common grackles. It protects against predators and helps in the hunt for food. Even though the robin is a symbol of spring, it actually spends its winter in much of its breeding range. In winter they spend less time in yards and more time in large flocks, so they are seen less often.

Physiology:

• sturdy legs with muscles designed for running or hopping,
• colors bright enough to attract mates without being so bright to alert predators
• flexible esophagus so they can eat many berries to keep warm in winter
• intestines that can digest waxy berry coatings
• hears tiny differences in sound

Predators: domestic cat, bobcat, great horned and barred owl, raccoon, grey and red squirrel, chipmunk, hawk (especially the sharp-shinned), crow, jay, grackle, snake, parasites include lice, flies, ticks, and mites

Some information provided courtesy of eNature.com®.

QUIZ

1.  Where does a robin like to nest?

1. A nesting box

2. A cup-shaped nest made of thick mud and twigs

3. A flat nest made of grasses on the ground

2.  How do robins stay warm in winter?

1. They eat lots of berries in the afternoon to get through the dark night

2. They huddle in flocks

3. They hide in their mud nests

3.  One of the robin's more unusual behaviors is to roost, or to flock together with large numbers of other birds. What is the largest number of birds that have been seen in a roost of robins?

1. 200

2. 2000

3. 250,000

4.  How did the American robin get its name?

1. It was named after Christopher Robin in the Winnie-the-Pooh series for its practical and playful manner.

2. It was named by European settlers after a similar European bird.

3. It was named for a type of berry that is an important part of the robin's diet.

5.  Robin chicks are altricial. What does this mean?

1. Their skin is transparent.

2. They can only eat food that their parents are have already digested.

3. They depend on their parents for their complete care.

6.  Where do males spend their time during the summer breeding season?

1. in roosts or large groups of other males

2. on branches outside their mate’s nest

3. looking for many new mates

7.  Robins can sometimes eat crops. What crops?

1. vegetables

2. fruit

3. grains

8.  Robins are a type of bird called a thrush. In fact, they are the biggest thrush in North America. What are characteristics of thrushes?

1. large eyes, eats from the ground, blue eggs

2. eats mainly seeds, hops sideways, yellow feet

3. does not migrate, roosts in dead trees, slender beak

ANSWERS

Yummy Worms

Here is a recipe for worms you can eat!  (Not to mention gross out your friends!)

·  1 tablespoon honey

·  2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter

·  2 tablespoons powdered milk

Mix the honey and peanut butter in a coffee mug. Add the powdered milk and cocoa and stir until you can mix it with your hands. If it's too sticky, add more powdered milk. Shape the mixture into little worms. Use the back of a knife to mark the worms' rings. Serve the worms with a salad. or next to your mac & cheese!

How about some Dirty Desert?!?!?

1. Put a clean plastic bag in a small flower pot and cut it so that it fits perfectly.

2. Put some chocolate sandwich cookies or chocolate graham crackers in another plastic bag and use a rolling pin to crush them. Keep crushing more until you have enough to fill the pot. This will be the "soil."

3. Then mix in lots of Gummy Worms and put the mixture into the pot. Poke in a few more Gummy Worms to make it look as if some of them are crawling out of the pot.

4. Decorate your pot with a clean plastic flower or a flower you’ve made from cardboard.

5. Serve the "soil" and worms over a dish of ice cream.

WORM RIDDLES

1. Why couldn’t Batman go fishing?

2. How can you tell which end of a worm is the head?

3. Why do fish like to eat worms so much?

ANSWERS