BOISE, Idaho — The American Robin is one of the most common birds in the United States, they can live almost anywhere and are known for their bright red chests. Some people in the Treasure Valley may be noticing the bird seems to be popping up more frequently.
Heidi Ware Carlisle, the education director at the Intermountain Bird Observatory at Boise State University, said there is a combination of factors that bring the robins around.
"So, this winter, we didn't have as many robins as we do typically. And then all of a sudden, we're seeing this change in the weather, right, it's getting nice and warm. Birds are starting to sing. They're responding to the lengthening days. They know that spring is coming," Ware Carlisle said.
Robin song is one of the earliest bird songs people hear in the spring, according to the Audubon Society. The bird migrates in flocks and then settles down with a mate during breeding season. Robins are in the thrush family and, fun fact, although there are also European robins, the two are not even related.
"I think it comes from people who lived in Europe and had the name robin for birds over there. When they came to the States, they saw a bird with a red chest, and their robins had a red chest and so they just kind of transferred that name over. But they're not related at all," Ware Carlisle said.
She said it can get a little confusing because we have blackbirds here like Redwing blackbirds, and over in Europe, they have a blackbird that is a thrush, and it's called Blackbird. However, they are not related but the European Blackbird is a thrush, and the American robin is a thrush.
Whether people know the birds background or not, the robin has always been a favorite to spot. As a robin hops around the grass chirping and bobbing along, they bring a saucy, springtime feeling. The bird is easy to spot at the end of winter when the birds are flocked up, they get noisier because they feel more comfortable in large flocks. Additionally, some of the fruiting trees in the area have ripening and softening berries, and the robins come to eat them.
"They're coming down low to places like this, where people you know cross paths with them more often," Ware Carlisle said. "Robins are a really complicated species, because they have a bunch of different strategies. They're also really complicated because they can live in a lot of different habitats. So, they do really well around humans, they can live in urban environments, they're probably one of the more common backyard birds that everybody recognizes."
Urban or rural, the robin feels comfortable almost anywhere, she said one of their favorite habitats is burned forest. Because there is so much variety within the species, there are a lot of different responses in the birds.
"When we're looking at robins, we look to weather patterns," she said. "They can hang out in the winter; they eat a lot of fruit in the wintertime. So, they're not bothered by really cold temperatures, as long as food is available. Depending on the year, depending on the temperatures, they will move around to find the best food resources."
Ware Carlisle said robins are not like a typical migratory bird that goes 2000 miles south for the winter and then back for spring.
"They kind of are nomadic and roam around. So, some years we get tons in the Treasure Valley and some years we have hardly any," she said.
In 2022 there were more robins in the area than had ever been recorded, so avid birders may not be as impressed with the number this year.
"Oh, yeah, there's tons of robins this year. But what's really the big picture?," she said. "I asked my birder friends and they pulled up the data from the Christmas Bird Count, which is a really important community science program, birdwatchers all across the country and all across the world submit data."
She said this year, over the winter, there were about 600 robins on the Nampa Christmas Bird Count. Last year, there were 9,000. That was probably due to food availability and milder temperatures. This year, there was a really big cold snap in January. Ware Carlisle said it probably pushed birds out of the area for a while.
"They didn't like those cold conditions, which I didn't either, so it makes sense," she said. "So now that we're seeing warmer weather, the birds are coming back. Warm weather is coming, and worms are probably starting to surface. So, we're gonna start seeing more robins."
She added that this is the time the birds go from winter mode, flock mode, into breeding season mode, where they will begin to pair up.
"They're starting to sing," she said. "Like I was just hearing one singing off in the distance here. Soon, they're not going to be in flocks anymore, they're going to be paired up. But spring is when they start coming down onto the lawns to eat worms. So that's when a lot of people say they had their first robin sighting of spring because the robin is back in their yard hanging out on the grass."
Warmer weather can mean more robins.
"It's definitely an indicator and warmer temperatures mean a lot of these Crab Apple fruits start to get nice and mushy for the robins right about this time of year. So, they'll come in for that. They're really good at finding resources and moving around to survive, which is pretty amazing," she said.
For people that want to see more robins in the yard all year round, Ware Carlisle said birdbaths can be great because they really want fresh water. Another way to get them into your yard is to plant native vegetation. She said robins are not typically a species that is going to visit a bird feeder that has seed in it.
"I love picking plants that provide a variety of things. A good example is Golden Currant. It is a shrub, so it provides nice shelter. It has beautiful flowers in the spring which attracts a lot of insects, robins love eating bugs. Then it fruits in the summertime and robins love fruit. A native plant species that can really attract a wide variety of birds is perfect for robins."
For people looking to learn more about birds, Ware Carlisle said ebird.org is a great resource that scientists all over the world use. For those looking for a more close-up approach to birds, in June the Intermountain Bird Observatory has public bird banding days where people can come and watch them catch and tag birds.
"Once we're done measuring them, you can hold out your hand we'll put a little bird on your hand, and it'll fly off. So that's pretty fun," she said. "We do it about once every 10 days, and around like late July we actually catch a lot of robins. So, if people are fans of robins they can come visit while we catch all the teenage robins that start wandering around the end of the summer."
For more information on the upcoming public bird banding days people can go to boisestate.edu., because the early bird gets the worm.
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