“A True Sign of Spring???”

by Scott Lee

The robins are back so it must be spring, right?  That’s what I was always told growing up. They eat worms and how do you find a worm through all that snow and frozen ground around here through the winters.  Wouldn’t they freeze and/or break their poor little beaks if they stayed?   So has something changed?  It sure seems so, as I’ve been seeing robins all winter long around here for years.  So how can they be considered a true sign of spring?

Some will stick around through the winter, so how do they eat?  Actually, the robins that stay survive by changing their diets.  Instead of worms, they find berries to dine on.  The ones in our yard, for example, hang out in a couple of big hackberry trees.  Others will find fruit-bearing trees such as crabapple.

But, hey, they actually still can be a “true sign of spring” if you look carefully.  For one thing, it is the male robins that are the first to arrive, assumedly to check things out and find their territories for potential nesting, well before the females show up.  It’s not as easy with robins as it is with many other birds to tell the males from the females.  The breasts of males area much more distinct, dark orange color than the females, with their paler breasts  (I’m still trying to figure out where that whole “robin red breast” thing came from – must have been some color blindness involved with that!).

Also, when you start noticing robins around the first part of March, pay attention not only to their breasts, but also as to where they’re hanging around.  Those returning from a winter in the south still prefer worms so you will see them optimistically hanging out on your lawns.  The winter robins, which will also include females, are still feeding on berries up in the trees.  They are likely the ones that suffer the least when these big, March snowstorms come along, but even those poor worm-eaters seem to somehow manage to make it through.  Yet another spring marvel!