Bird Directory

American Robin Click on picture to hear bird sounds.	Bird Name: American Robin
	Field Marks: Although the American Robin is thought of as having a red breast, its breast and sides are really rusty orange. The male has a yellow bill and a broken white eye ring. His black fairly long tail has white corners. The wings are lighter and grey-brown. The female, with a brown instead of black upper body, is much duller in color to help protect her and her nest full of eggs or babies.
	Feeder Food: Apples, raisins, cherries, grapes
	Natural Food: Worms, insects, insect larvae, berries, fruit
	Behavior: A robin cocks its head to one side, looking for worms because it sees the side and front at the same time. In order to see a worm, the robin must look through the center of just one eye, so it tilts its head. If you see a robin near a berry bush, watch it gobbling up berries and swallowing them whole one after another. Song: cheery-up, cherry me

Pictures and sounds were reproduced by permission.

Sources:

Alden, Peter and Brian Cassie, National Audubon Society Field Guide To New England, New York: Alfred A.Knopf, 1998.

Dawe, Neil and Karen, The Bird Book, New York: Workman Publishing, 1988.

Elliott, Lang, Know Your Bird Sounds (cassette), Minocqua, WI: NorthWord Press, Inc., 1994.

Forbush, Edward Howe, Birds of Massachusetts, Norwood, Massachusetts: Norwood Press, 1929.

Reed, Chester R., Bird Guide: Land Birds East of the Rockies, Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1951.

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