American Robin
FINAL Robin Migration Update: May 8, 2012
Please Report
Your Sightings!		 Report Your Sightings
From Florida to Alaska and California to Canada, robins are home. Now comes the serious business of making new little robins. Fledglings leave the nest with much to learn! Our new slideshow takes you to summer school for robins. What else will you learn by watching summer robins?

This Week's Update Includes:

Image of the Week
Baby robin on the verge of fledging
Photo: Vickie King
Why Leave Now?
 
News: What's Happening Now & What to Watch For

What's Happening Now

It's time to celebrate how far the robins have come in just over three months of our tracking their migration! Robins have:

  • expanded across the North American continent up to Alaska.
  • changed their behavior from social flocking to territorial nesting.
  • changed their daily patterns of movement from nomadic winter wandering to summer nesting in a localized territory, one-half to a few acres in size.
  • changed their diet from leftover fruit to the bountiful live worms and insects of North America's spring and summer seasons.
Well done, feathered friends! What's next?

What to Watch For

You have a summer of fantastic robin-watching ahead! Look for the following behaviors. Keep a Field Notes Journal of your observations: Record date, time of day and gender of each bird you're observing. List as many details as you can. Let this journal be the start of your own robin Field Notes book that you add to year after year. You will be amazed how many discoveries come from growing into a good observer!

 
Singing Bathing
Fighting Preening
Hunting for Worms Nest Building
Eating Other Food items (fruits, berries...) Incubating
Chasing Predators Feeding Babies
Sleeping "Freezing" when a hawk flies over

Animated photo of an alarmed robin's body language
Photos: Laura Erickson
Alert and Alarmed
 
Hungry robin nestlings
Photos: Wayne Kryduba
Hard Work for Parents!
 
Animation of egg-to-fledglings in a robin nest
Photos: Wayne Kryduba

From Egg to Fledgling

 
Explore: What Do Fledglings Need to Learn?

Baby robins are ready to leave the nest when they are about 13 days old. They have a lot to learn. Summer is school time for fledglings! Our new slideshow explores this essential question:

Essential Question
What do fledglings need to learn?
Cover of Booklet
Summer School
Latest Maps: Where Are Robins Now?
Congratulations! For almost 4 months you have watched the ever-changing Journey North maps based on what you and other citizen scientists report. The maps below provide a snapshot in time for today. How would you sum up the season? What factors may have influenced the pace of the 2012 spring migration from one week to the next?
Robin Migration Map: First Robin Robin Migration Map: Waves of Robins Robin migration map: First robins heard singing Robin Range Map
First See
(map/list)		 Waves
(map/list)		 Singing
(map/list)		 Robin Range Map

Annual Evaluation: Please Share Your Thoughts
Will you take a few minutes to complete our Year-end Evaluation? With your help, we can we document Journey North's reach, impact and value. We need comments like yours to keep the program going and growing.

 Image link to Year-End Evaluation
This is the FINAL Robin migration update for spring 2012. A big thanks to all who reported their robins and helped us track the 2012 journey north! We hope you enjoy your backyard birds this spring and summer as the next generation of robins begins to grow. Please join us next season!

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