Do robins visit your wildlife porch, patio, or backyard but don't stay long? Have you ever wondered about a robin's call or where robins take shelter?

As the end of winter nears, I find myself looking around outside for robins In most places I've lived, robins usher in the spring, and at times I can't wait.

If you've seen robins in your area before, your chances are good at getting them to stay longer. If, however, you live three stories or more from ground-level, you may not attract robins at all.

Quick Start

1. Identify: via a field guide, including picture and audio
   
   
2. Provide Housing: buy or build a nesting platform and mount to a wall location 7-15 feet off the ground
   
   
3. Provide Water: robins enjoy a birdbath, preferably a ground-level birdbath but a hanging or pedestal birdbath will also work
   
   
4. Provide Food: fruit, suet mixes, and live worms will tempt them to visit your platform feeders
   
   

Is It a Robin?

The adult robin is 9-11" long, with a reddish brown breast and gray above, with a black/gray head, white eye-rings, yellow bill, and a throat streaked with black and white. The male is generally brighter than the female (the female has the more grayish head).

The younger fledgling robin resembles the adults but pale body streaks and black-spotted breasts.

Recognizing a robin by its call may be difficult because of the robin's large repertoire (some reference sites, below, include sound bites), but commonly you'll hear a "bold gurgling song that sounds like sing-song cheerily cheer-up cheerio."

You can find the American Robin foraging for earthworms and other food more in early morning and around sunset and roosting in large communities in the winter.

They are found in all of the United States and parts of Canada and Mexico. Because some robin populations migrate, finding a robin in Mexico or South Texas is more likely in winter; in Canada, summer.

Although robins prefer a wide range of habitats, in cities they often frequent a mix of shrubs, trees, and open lawns.

Attract with Water

Watching a robin splash in a birdbath is one of the more entertaining sites in home bird watching. Robins bathe more than most birds due to excessive oil production and to get rid of parasites. Robins also need water to drink and use mud for nesting.

Attract with Shelter

Robins will build nests early in the year of mud, twigs, and grasses in trees, building ledges, and man-made nesting platforms. They often nest in the same place year after year.

Install a nesting platform that you've bought or built in a good location where you can watch it, but away from marauding cats, squirrels, or raccoons.

Attract with Food

Robins eat earthworms and other invertebrate, as well as apples, grapes, suet, suet with insects or berries, and fresh fruit. They prefer to forage on the ground, but you may attract them with a fruit feeder, a mealworm feeder, or a feeder that allows a mix of large fruit, berries, and worms.

Other Robin Facts

• Up to 80% of robins' young die each year
• Squirrels, crows, jays, and raccoons will eat robin eggs
• Robins are very sensitive to insecticides

References

1. Davidson University's American Robin
   
2. Robin Fact Sheet from Hinterland Who's Who
   
3. American Robin educational information from Journey North
   
4. eNature.com's American Robin