Everything below is reproduced verbatim from four classic accounts of the American robin — Forbush’s Birds of Massachusetts (1929), Alexander Wilson’s American Ornithology, Weed & Dearborn’s Birds in Their Relations to Man (1903) and F. E. L. Beal’s federal Bulletin 171 on the food of robins (1915) — with nothing of ours added but the headings, the table and this sentence.

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A wave of song, Atlantic to Pacific

Haunts and Habits. On every vernal morning a wave of Robin song rises on the Atlantic coast to hail the coming day, and so, preceding the rising sun, rolls across the land until at last it breaks and dies away upon the distant shores of the Pacific Ocean. All through the northern states the Robin ushers in the day with song.

Hot or cold, wet or dry, the Robin sings. He makes himself at home in the back yard; he hops about on the lawn; he knows all the folks and they all know him. Why then should one write about his haunts and habits, which should be well known to everybody? In answer to this it may be said in truth that most people really know very little about him.

To begin with he is not a robin and never was one. The real “Robin Red-breast” is a native of the Old World — a little bird formed much like our Bluebird with a dark brown back and a reddish-orange throat and breast. This is the Robin that appears so often in European literature and folk-lore — the one that covered with leaves the “Babes in the Wood.” Our so-called Robin is a large migratory thrush with a reddish-brown or tawny breast, but our forefathers named him Robin in remembrance of the beloved English bird and despite the protests of naturalists the name sticks.

To begin with he is not a robin and never was one.

Wilson’s robin, a century earlier

The name of this bird bespeaks him a bird of passage, as are all the different species of thrushes we have; but the one we are now describing being more unsettled, and continually roving about from one region to another, during fall and winter, seems particularly entitled to the appellation. Scarce a winter passes but innumerable thousands of them are seen in the lower parts of the whole Atlantic States, from New Hampshire to Carolina, particularly in the neighbourhood of our towns; and, from the circumstance of their leaving, during that season, the country to the northwest of the great range of the Alleghany, from Maryland northward, it would appear that they not only migrate from north to south, but from west to east, to avoid the deep snows that generally prevail on these high regions for at least four months in the year.

Robins were then market game, until a rumor saved them — When berries fail, they disperse themselves over the fields, and along the fences, in search of worms and other insects. Sometimes they will disappear for a week or two, and return again in greater numbers than before; at which time the cities pour out their sportsmen by scores, and the markets are plentifully supplied with them at a cheap rate.

In January, 1807, two young men, in one excursion after them, shot thirty dozen. In the midst of such devastation, which continued many weeks, and, by accounts, extended from Massachusetts to Maryland, some humane person took advantage of a circumstance common to these birds in winter, to stop the general slaughter. The fruit called poke-berries (Phytolacca decandra, Linn.) is a favourite repast with the robin, after they are mellowed by the frost.

The juice of the berries is of a beautiful crimson, and they are eaten in such quantities by these birds, that their whole stomachs are strongly tinged with the same red colour. A paragraph appeared in the public papers, intimating, that, from the great quantities of these berries which the robins had fed on, they had become unwholesome, and even dangerous food; and that several persons had suffered by eating of them.

The strange appearance of the bowels of the birds seemed to corroborate this account. The demand for, and use of them, ceased almost instantly; and motives of self-preservation produced at once what all the pleadings of humanity could not effect.

The robin is one of our earliest songsters; even in March, while snow yet dapples the fields, and flocks of them are dispersed about, some few will mount a post or stake of the fence, and make short and frequent attempts at their song.

Early in April, they are only to be seen in pairs, and deliver their notes with great earnestness, from the top of some tree detached from the woods. This song has some resemblance to, and indeed is no bad imitation of, the notes of the thrush or thrasher (Turdus rufus;) but, if deficient in point of execution, he possesses more simplicity, and makes up in zeal what he wants in talent; so that the notes of the robin, in spring, are universally known, and as universally beloved.

They are, as it were, the prelude to the grand general concert that is about to burst upon us from woods, fields, and thickets, whitened with blossoms, and breathing fragrance. By the usual association of ideas, we therefore listen with more pleasure to this cheerful bird, than to many others possessed of far superior powers, and much greater variety.

Where your robins go in winter

Another thing about this bird that most people do not know is that many Robins spend the entire winter in New England, where they roost among the evergreens in swamps, feed on winter berries and come out into the fields occasionally when the snow has vanished during a thaw. This common habit is so little known that nearly every winter the newspapers publish articles predicting an early spring because the “first Robin” has appeared or because “the Robins have arrived early.” In some winters when persistent berries are abundant in the north hundreds of Robins pass the winter in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia as they did in the winter of 1924-25, but this is unusual.

In January, 1929, Robins were reported as wintering even in Newfoundland. Most of our Robins, however, go south in winter and probably all those that winter in New England are hardy birds that nest in Ungava, Labrador and other northern regions and even some of these perish of privation and cold in severe New England winters.

The New England breeding birds go south and in severe seasons many of them go to the extreme tip of the peninsula of Florida. Large flights sometimes reach Key West. In Brevard County, Florida, I have seen Robins in one continuous stream crossing the sky from horizon to horizon for an entire forenoon, all traveling southward and in the afternoon many were seen retracing their flight.

There they feed much on palmetto berries in winter. They seem to have no particular destination in the south but wander about, stopping where food is plentiful as was the case with the Passenger Pigeon and like the pigeons they roost in immense numbers in favorite places. In the winter of 1927-28 there was a roost in North Carolina which harbored a vast assemblage of Robins estimated at three million birds by one of the game wardens (a probable exaggeration, however).

There are similar roosting places in Tennessee and Kentucky where some of our birds doubtless go in winter. A Robin banded in Massachusetts in summer was taken in Kentucky in the winter.

The old roost raids, a period record — How Robins formerly were slaughtered in their southern roosting places is told graphically by Dr. T. Gilbert Pearson. The birds were killed for food and were sold in the market. Dr. Pearson says that as late as 1913 he saw strings of them offered in the markets of Raleigh, North Carolina, at 60 cents a dozen.

He quotes Dr. P. P. Claxton, United States Commissioner for Education, who tells how a Robin roost near Fosterville, Tennessee, was raided by the inhabitants. The birds roosted in thick cedar woods and came many miles from all directions to congregate there at night. In the words of the narrator “the trees… for a mile square were literally loaded at night with Robins.” When a party of hunters arrived at the roost at night one of them with a torch climbed a tree and when the torch was lighted the others with poles beat the surrounding trees.

Blinded by the light the suddenly awakened birds flew to the light, and the torch bearer seizing each one, quickly pulled off its head and dropped the body into a bag hanging from his shoulder. Thus three or four hundred birds were captured by one man in a single night. This tremendous slaughter continued for three or four winters, after which the birds abandoned the roost.

Now the sale of the birds is illegal and they are protected by law, but many are still killed by law-breakers both north and south.

Courtship, nest and eggs

As spring advances the Robins begin their wooing. Everybody in the rural districts whose eyes and ears serve them, has seen it, for it is by no means carried on in private. The pursuit, the battles of the jealous rival males and the apparent lack of interest shown by the demure females, are apparent to all.

Courtship often begins while some snowbanks still remain in shady places and while morning temperatures are below the freezing point. Mrs. E. S. Fowler of Danvers, Massachusetts, wrote on April 13, 1913, that she saw a male bird with a worm start in the direction of a female sitting by a snowbank, when he saw another male with her and with a loud cry drove the interloper around the corner of the house, but as he turned the corner in hot pursuit a gust of the April breeze caught him sidewise, whirled him about and drove him back over a strip of ice that gave him no footing, though his feet moved rapidly in the effort to overtake his rival.

When the gust finally dropped him he seemed a bit confused. Then he looked to his female only to find that his rival, who had flown over the house and back to the trysting place, was with her again. With a shrill scream of rage the baffled suitor dropped his worm and flew at his rival with open mouth, driving him from the vicinity.

Forbush’s measurements — Measurements. — Length 9.00 to 10.75 in.; spread 14.80 to 16.50; folded wing 4.90 to 5.50; tail 3.75 to 4.75; bill .80 to .94; tarsus 1.00 to 1.40. Female usually but not always smaller than male.

And his breeding notes — Eggs: 3 to 5, usually 4, very rarely 6; 1.05 to 1.26 by .78 to .85 in.; commonly ovate to elongate ovate; greenish-blue, very rarely marked with faint spots of reddish-brown; figured by E. A. Capen in “Oology of New England,” Plate 1, Fig. 1. Dates: April 17 to July, Rhode Island; April 12 to July 25, Massachusetts; April 28 to early August, Maine. Incubation: Period 11 to 14 days; sometimes by both sexes but usually chiefly by female. Two or three broods yearly.

The bravery of Robins in defense of their young is well-known. Mr. Henry W. Abbott of Yarmouthport, Massachusetts, says that he was once assaulted by six adult robins with berserker rage and feathered fury. The late Judge George W. Wiggin, formerly secretary of the Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective Association, said that one morning in June he saw a gray squirrel start to climb an oak tree in which a female Robin was brooding young in the nest.

Immediately the male Robin appeared, followed by six or eight more, all of whom darted at that squirrel and pecked it until they had driven it out of the tree, over the lawn, and across the street. In defense of its young one Robin has been seen to put two Blue Jays to flight. Some Robins are very pugnacious during the breeding season and such individuals have been known to kill other birds, though possibly for good reasons.

The summer roosts

Robins not only resort to community roosting places in winter, but also establish summer roosts to which some of the old males begin to go nightly even in June. In July they are joined by young birds of the first brood, and when the last brood has been reared, old and young, male and female, all resort to the roost at night.

The numbers at these roosts increase greatly in August and thousands of Robins continue to occupy these roosts nightly until the middle of September, when their southward migration begins. Torrey and Brewster have given quite full accounts of these roosts. I can add nothing to the well-known accounts of these gentlemen except the following item.

Mr. Brewster says that he has never known Robins to spend the night in pines or in any species of evergreens except in a white cedar swamp at Falmouth, Massachusetts. My pine grove comprising about six acres of white pine at Wareham, Massachusetts, was a robin roost for about ten years and was the resort each summer of at least a thousand Robins.

They came to it nightly from all directions. Whenever any one with a lantern passed through the grove at night the birds could be heard fluttering all through the tops of the trees.

The worm-and-lawn economics, made readable

The robin obtains most of its insect food upon the ground, where it searches diligently for cutworms, white grubs, ground-beetles, and allied creatures. One of the most familiar sights of spring in the Northern States is that of dozens of robins searching the grass of lawns and meadows for food. These birds are decidedly gregarious, migrating in flocks of considerable size and remaining together in the South during winter. Even during the breeding season the young birds and the old males gather nightly to roost in certain woods.

The above accounts relate to the food of the adult robins. We have next to consider that of the nestlings. Properly to appreciate the importance of the latter, we must remember that as far north as Massachusetts three broods of nestlings are commonly reared; that from early spring till late in the summer each pair of old birds is engaged at least half of the time in providing food for four, five, or six ravenous birdlings; and that each of the latter probably requires more food while in the nest than does one of the adults during the same period. It seems to us that the chief claim of the robin upon man’s favor rests upon these facts.

The robin appears to be one of the birds that thrives fully as well under the conditions of modern agriculture as when the soil was owned by the red man. A knowledge of its feeding habits would lead one to expect this. In many localities it is believed that these birds are now more numerous than in earlier times.

On the whole, there can be no doubt that it is an eminently useful bird, but it is equally certain that too often the fruit-grower alone has to pay heavily for services rendered to the community at large. In concluding his discussion of an elaborate investigation of the food of adult robins, Professor Forbes expresses his belief that the horticulturist cannot “sell his small fruits anywhere in the ordinary markets of the world at so high a price as to the robin, provided he uses proper diligence that the little huckster does not overreach him in the bargain.” If this is true when the food of the adult alone is considered, it is much more so when the food of the nestlings is also taken into account.

Nevertheless, we believe the fruit-grower should be allowed to protect his crops when necessary, doing so in such a way as to accomplish the greatest results with the least expenditure of robin life. But the indiscriminate destruction of the birds for food, “sport,” or millinery purposes should be stopped, and the robbing of the nests should be properly punished.

The 1,236-stomach study: the insect side of the ledger

In investigating the food of the robin 1,236 stomachs from 42 States, the District of Columbia, and 3 Canadian Provinces were examined. They represent every month in the year and include the three subspecies generally recognized—migratorius, propinquus, and achrusterus. Analysis showed that the food consisted of 42.40 per cent animal matter and 57.60 per cent vegetable.

Animal food.—As the robin is an early migrant from the south he naturally preys on the first insects that come out from winter quarters. Useful Carabidae, or predaceous ground beetles, which are among the earliest insects to appear in spring, form a very important element of the food of the first spring migrants among the birds.

These beetles form 12.78 per cent of the food of the robin in April, and 8.57 per cent in March. After April, when other prey becomes more abundant, fewer appear in the food, but they are taken to some extent in every month and aggregate 5 per cent for the year.

Beetles of the May-beetle family (Scarabaeidae) are eaten to the extent of 5.48 per cent of the yearly food, but in May, the month of their greatest abundance, they amount to 32.29 per cent, or nearly one-third of the diet. Various species of these beetles were found in 274 stomachs. Of these, Lachnosterna, the progenitors of the white grubs that eat the roots of grass and other plants, were found in 64. Several other species of the family nearly as harmful were identified.

Diptera (flies) are represented in the food of the robin almost entirely by larvae of the March flies (Bibionidae). Bibio albipennis, the species most often eaten by robins, breeds in colonies in the ground, feeding on grass roots. Naturally they are not found by the birds so often as if they were more generally distributed, but when found the whole colony is eaten.

While several stomachs contained less than 100 each of these larvae, at least 12 contained from 100 to 200; one contained 270, and another the remarkable number of 1,040. In this last case the bird probably had the good fortune to find several colonies. March flies are not considered very harmful insects, but are prolific breeders, and that they do not do more damage is probably because they are so persistently preyed upon by robins.

In February and March the number of these larvae eaten is about 10 per cent of the bird’s diet. In other months it is considerably less. The average for the year is 3.14 per cent. A few crane flies (Tipulidae) and a few bits of other Diptera were taken by robins, but they do not constitute an appreciable percentage of the food.

Lepidoptera (mostly caterpillars) form a regular and fairly abundant constituent of the robin’s diet. The maximum consumption occurs in May, when this item amounts to 23.96 per cent of the food. After this it gradually decreases to a little more than 1 per cent in November, when it again rises toward its maximum. Owing to the soft nature of these insects, very few can be identified.

The army worm (Heliophila unipuncta) was recognized in six stomachs, but was probably represented in many more; the codling moth caterpillar (Carpocapsa pomonella) was found in two stomachs; a cabbage worm (Pontia protodice) in one; and the yellow-necked apple-tree worm (Datana ministra) in three. Undoubtedly many more destructive species were contained in the food, though unrecognizable, but as practically all caterpillars are harmful, any destruction of them may be set down to the credit of the bird. The total consumption amounts to 9.04 per cent of the food.

The robin consumes the greatest quantity of grasshoppers from June to September, when 73 per cent of the total number taken during the year are eaten, or somewhat more than 10 per cent of the whole food. In August, as would be expected, the consumption is greatest and amounts to 17.33 per cent. In the same months the meadowlark eats grasshoppers to the extent of 67 per cent of his monthly diet.

The average annual consumption by the robin is only 4.76 per cent, while with the meadowlark it is 28.30. It is evident that during most of the year these insects are eaten by the robin only when nothing better is at hand.

And the fruit side, in one paragraph — Vegetable food—Over 50 per cent of the robin’s food consists of fruit and more than four-fifths of this are wild species, even if strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries are classified as cultivated, which is not always the case. Many complaints have been made against this bird on the score of fruit eating and in many cases they are well founded.

In the vicinity of towns where cultivation and improvements have swept away the wild fruits, or when for any reason the crops of wild fruit fail, the birds are forced to resort to cultivated varieties, and disaster to the farmer results.

Source

Edward Howe Forbush, Birds of Massachusetts and Other New England States, Vol. III (1929), Robin. Alexander Wilson, American Ornithology (1832 printing), Robin. Clarence Weed and Ned Dearborn, Birds in Their Relations to Man (1903), The Robin. F. E. L. Beal, Food of the Robins and Bluebirds of the United States, USDA Bulletin 171 (1915). Public domain. Biodiversity Heritage Library / Internet Archive.

Passages reproduced verbatim from the scanned originals. Hard line-wraps joined and the scan’s doubled word spacing collapsed; page headers, plate captions and the sources’ reference footnotes omitted; footnote reference marks (superscript digits, asterisks and daggers printed after sentences) removed; OCR pipe characters removed; the printers’ space before punctuation closed up and compound hyphens the scan breaks apart closed. The OCR loses the ae ligature in Latin names (e.g. ‘larve’, ‘Carabide’); ‘ae’ restored throughout. Single-glyph OCR corrections: “in the lower parts of the wdiole Atlantic States” to “in the lower parts of the whole Atlantic States”; “When berried fail, they disperse” to “When berries fail, they disperse”; “the notes of the thrush or thrasher ( Turdus rvfus ;)” to “the notes of the thrush or thrasher (Turdus rufus;)”; “is that of. dozens of robins” to “is that of dozens of robins”; “overreach him in the bargain.1′” to “overreach him in the bargain.””; “subspecies generally recognized—migratorius, propingquus” to “subspecies generally recognized—migratorius, propinquus”; “represented in the food of the robin almost. entirely” to “represented in the food of the robin almost entirely”; “army worm (/leliophila unipuncta)” to “army worm (Heliophila unipuncta)”; “the yellow- nbeied apple-tree worm” to “the yellow-necked apple-tree worm”; “or when for any. reason” to “or when for any reason”; “forced to resort to — cultivated varieties” to “forced to resort to cultivated varieties”; “disaster to the farmer results. 6” to “disaster to the farmer results.”; “Mr. Henry W. Abbott of Varmouthport” to “Mr. Henry W. Abbott of Yarmouthport”; “The late Judge George \Y. Wiggin” to “The late Judge George W. Wiggin”; “one morning in .June he saw” to “one morning in June he saw”; “put two Blue Jays to night” to “put two Blue Jays to flight”; “nearly onethird of the diet” to “nearly one-third of the diet”; “Lepidoptera ‘(mostly caterpillars)” to “Lepidoptera (mostly caterpillars)”; “cannot ” sell his small fruits” to “cannot “sell his small fruits”; “; 1 .05 to 1.26 by” to “; 1.05 to 1.26 by”. Cuts, always at sentence boundaries: Forbush’s account is heavily excerpted (mud-nest lore, bigamy cases, adoption stories, his summary of Beal’s percentages and his cherry-orchard advice are all omitted — his cultivated-fruit material has its own article on this site); Wilson’s song paragraph ends before the schoolboys passage and his range notes are omitted; Weed & Dearborn’s Forbes and Wilcox summaries are trimmed; Beal’s Bulletin 171 is quoted from its prose only — the bulletin’s printed tables do not survive OCR and none are reproduced — and its vegetable-food section is quoted only through its opening lines (the California olive narrative that follows is reproduced in a companion piece, not here).