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What Expert Laura Erickson Thinks:
This robin behavior is, indeed, abnormal, but so is this unusual weather pattern.
The poor birds are caught between needing to flock because that's their normal mode when eating fruit — which is necessary right now while the ground is still mostly frozen — and their surging hormones, which are commanding males to SING!
That's the weird thing about swinging between two different modes. Sometimes the transition is like an on-off switch; we see one mode or the other. But sometimes it's more of a pendulum, swinging between the two modes. With the cold weather right now, the pendulum is at the precise bottom, equally reflecting both sides.
Photo Elizabeth Howard
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