American Robin

Here's someone who's potentially around all winter, but I have to admit I didn't see a lot this particular winter: an American Robin. Though renowned as a harbinger of spring, and even having migration in its scientific name (Turdus migratorius), people are sometimes surprised to see them on a cold winter day.

Since we know some of them migrate down south, there are 2 main thoughts on what the wintertime robins are:

  1. They could be a subset of the robins we see in the summer that has decided the perils/strains of migration outweigh the perils/strains of our winters.
  2. It's possible that the robins that winter here spend their winters even further north (northern NE, and Canada), and they're escaping the winters of their summer homes for the more moderate NJ winters.
It's certainly possible that our winter robins are a mix of these two theories too. We still don't fully understand how even very common birds like robins operate, or whether climate change is affecting their migration decisions.

March 2021 at Duke Farms


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