Seriously Singing
In most songbird species only the males sing, as they're the ones that establish territories. A male belts out his song to serves as a territorial warning to other males. The songs of a male are also great clues to a female that he is fit and healthy. Individual robins each have unique elements in their song—notes and phrases that they came up with on their own, unlike song elements of their father and neighbors where they came from, and unlike song elements of the neighbors on their breeding grounds. But they also share song elements with other robins, especially their neighbors.
"From inside my house, I heard a happy, familiar sound I had not heard for a while. Oh wait, that's a Robin singing for the first time this spring!" Joyce T. Grand Rapids, Michigan April 9, 2015
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