Eating Like A Bird in winter. Robins are one bird you won’t normally see on a seed feeder. In the warmer seasons, they’re primarily eating worms and insects. In the colder seasons, they’re primarily eating berries. Many of us are pretty familiar with Robins because they’re widespread in North America. They frequent urban areas, backyards, as well as wild areas. Some Robins that breed in Canada come south to the United States for winter while other Robins go as far as Mexico for winter. We don’t always know or get to experience how intelligent birds are, but I have a Robin story to illustrate this. While I was watering our vegetable garden one summer morning, a female Robin hopped up on the garden fence and perched and watched me. She was about 4 feet away and just watched me. I've never seen that. After I finished watering one part of the garden, I moved down with my hose to a new part. As I did that, the Robin flew down to the area that was watered and, using only her beak, started to collect as much of the now muddy, damp soil as she could. She flew off and a few minutes later came back for more. I didn't see where she went, but I'm pretty certain she was collecting material for her nest. Robins use mud to reinforce the sticks and other material they construct their nests with.

What most impressed me is that the Robin showed up just as I turned the water on. It seemed she recognized, and had learned the sound of the water and what that would mean for where it was going. How much I wished I had a video of that smart Robin mom! Speaking of water, Robins also love a good bath. If you put clean bird baths out, they’ll be one of the first to bathe or drink, and they’ll come back often.

Because Robins forage a lot on lawns, they’re vulnerable to pesticide poisoning from lawn applied pesticides.

This is the final episode in my Eating Like A Bird series!  I hope you’ve enjoyed this series; and it’s given you some new information, perspective, or inspiration about our many feathered friends.

Read More about the Eating Like A Bird series: https://www.copperrangellc.com/blog/2020/12/eating-like-a-bird