Juvenile American Robins

Here are some of my friendly neighborhood American Robins foraging through the grass - I wouldn't want to be an earthworm in that area.

American Robins are in the thrush family of birds. Other thrushes in my area are Wood Thrushes, Hermit Thrushes, and Veeries, though the 2nd most seen is probably the Eastern Bluebird. Our robins do have closer thrush relatives, but they mostly live in different parts of the world. Somewhat confusingly though they're not closely related to the European Robin for which the American Robin was named. The two robins do share orangish feathering on the breast, and at one time were categorized in the same family, but DNA tests indicated they belong in separate families.

You may think these birds are too speckled to be American Robins, and you'd be sorta right. Adult American Robins wouldn't have speckles, but juvenile American Robins do. I'm assuming that this camouflages them a bit when they're young and haven't learned how to avoid predators yet.

August 21, 2020 at Finderne, NJ


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