Robin, Robin, Google.

Hello again, fellow mommies!

Sorry I haven’t posted much in the last few days. I have been adding activities and events into the Activities Calendar when I have a free moment here and there but mostly I have been busy enjoying this beautiful weather with my little guy!

Yesterday, we went out for an evening walk around the neighborhood and we saw at least 50 robins. The first sign of Spring! They were everywhere! Though I’ve never really given it much thought before, seeing them all lead me to wonder where exactly they’ve been hiding during our unseasonably warm winter. Now that I am a parent, I find myself constantly thinking and anticipating these kinds of questions and I want to make sure I know the right answers! Thank God for Google.

According to a guy named haans42 over on Yahoo Answers,

“The American Robin is migratory. However, they are not “complete” migrants. That is: not all individuals leave their breeding range during non breeding months.

In western New York and all around the Great Lakes Region some Robins remain in this region during the cold months. This is dependent upon available food supply.

We see fewer Robins in winter because they are less conspicuous. They flock and these groups prefer rural areas, or areas where there are few people, but available food.

In spring the Robins are more obvious because they are moving back into more populated areas as the flock breaks up in an activity called breeding dispersal. Robins are not community nesters. Each pair has it’s own territory. This results in the Robins being more obvious to the casual observer because they are spread over a large area. ( Think of marbles. If you have them all together it is easy to hide them all in 1 place. If you scatter them it is much easier to find 1 or 2 but not all)

Robins do not lose their color in winter although is may not be as bright as their feathers wear.”

So, there we go. We’re all prepared in case “Mommy, where all the robins go during winter?” ever comes up.

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