Nature Connection: Winter Robins

American robins have long been a sign of spring arriving here in New England. When we see that first often faded and tired-looking robin arrive on our lawns on one of the first days of March, we know that winter will soon be over.

Robins seem to disappear in early fall, and many of us may have assumed they migrated south with all the rest of the summer birds. Well, it’s a little more complicated than that. Robins are nomads and although some do migrate south for the winter, many more gather in large flocks and go looking for food not far from their nesting places.

Seeing a robin with a juicy earthworm in its bill is a familiar sight. All summer long we see robins hopping about our yards looking for worms and caterpillars to feed their young and themselves. During the time of courting, nesting, and rearing young, these plucky birds are very territorial and feisty about protecting what is theirs.

In the fall, however, all that posturing becomes unnecessary and robins, like many other birds, become much more social. Birds that travel in flocks get protection from the group, and flocking is a common activity in many bird species that are otherwise solitary or live in pairs during the breeding season.

Every fall you may see flocks of blue jays, goldfinches, swallows, different kinds of sparrows and more as birds prepare for winter. A flock not only offers protection, but it is a great strategy for finding food and water sources as well. Robins, like blue jays and goldfinches, may travel a few hundred miles in bad winters but many stick around, moving only when bad weather makes it difficult to find food. In that case they will travel a bit to find a more hospitable place.

The robins that nest in Canada and move south to our area tend to be a little more robust than the robins we see here in summer, but to be honest, most winter flocks will have a combination of robins from different areas.

Eating mostly insects and worms in summer, robins must change their diet as fall sets in. They then seek out berries and fruits that remain on shrubs and trees, and it is not unusual to surprise several dozen feasting robins, waxwings, and maybe a mockingbird or two on bushes heavy with berries, such as the bright red winterberry.

We have several very large holly trees in our yard and on good years two of the three trees are packed with juicy red berries. The third remains berryless and is the male, without whom there would be no berries on the female trees. Every year in the over 40 years we’ve been here, huge flocks of robins and cedar waxwings descend on these trees and strip them in just a few days. The timing varies a bit from year to year but usually occurs sometime in late January or early February. There’s no mistaking their arrival for the yard comes alive with hundreds of birds competing for the best berries until they are all gone.

It surprises many people to suddenly see dozens, even hundreds of robins in winter but it is not unusual or a sign of climate change. It is a sign that robins are pretty comfortable in suburban environments and that your native plantings are doing their job, feeding native birds and wildlife.

Right now, there are thousands and thousands of robins on the Cape. Roosts of over 20,000 birds each are in West Barnstable and Harwich, and watching these birds fly into their roost at dusk is a breathtaking sight. It’s also noisy and smelly if you wander into the actual roosting area. That’s a whole lot of birds settling in for the night and emptying their waste as they do so.

On a recent walk in East Sandwich this week I was surrounded by hundreds of robins. They were busily feeding on juniper berries, which have been incredibly abundant this year. Most of the winterberries in this area have already been stripped, and after the juniper berries are gone, they will probably head for the common hollies, of which there are many all over the Cape. Later they will settle for the less tantalizing berries of the green briers, privet, hawthorn, and so on. If there are any sumac fruits left, they will take care of them as well. Sumac, especially the staghorn variety, has been pretty well cleaned out already.

If you are seeing a lot of robins, you are not alone. Don’t be alarmed, this is a normal, annual event. Even though we think of them as summer residents, they are simply nomadic, not completely migratory.

Having said that, watch for the robins that headed south to return in early March, looking a bit haggard as they attempt to flush out those early worms. The flocks will have dispersed and once again the first male robins of spring will loudly and assertively set up their territories. The females will return a week or so later and once again, the red-red robins will be bob-bob-bobbing along, just like that old kindergarten song said they would.