-----Original Message-----
From: Ohio birds on behalf of TUCKER, Casey
Sent: Thu 2/8/07 5:22 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [Ohio-birds] Robins in Winter
 
 Typically, a
resident male will try to last through the winter and defend one of
these bushes from other over-wintering frugivores like mockingbirds and
Robins from further north.  It's thought that these males are trying to
protect a food source for their own use during the winter, but also a
source of food that may attract females when they return during the
spring.  This, in turn, may help the male find a mate.

?????????

I understood everything up to the return of the females in spring.  Would a migratory female just back from the sunny southlands have any interest in the remaining berries on an ornamental shrub?  Or would she be looking for earthworms, which she had presumably been eating all winter in a place where the ground does not freeze?  Or do robins eat berries in the winter throughout the continent?  Is the dietary switch from worms to berries triggered by their inability to catch worms in frozen ground, by minimum temperatures staying below freezing for some length of time, by daylength, by the chemicals (alcohol?) in fermented and/or frozen berries making them more attractive than before, or by some other environmental change?  Trying to think like a bird, I had always figured robins ate worms for as long as they could, and then switched reluctantly to berries out of desperation, but this discussion has started me wondering.

Bob Barrett
Fairlawn, Summit County

 

 


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