Look closerBirds
Why robins travel in fruit-eating flocks in fall and winter
When: October to February
The robin patrolling your lawn alone all summer is gone; through fall and winter, robins roam in nomadic flocks that live on fruit, which can make up more than 90 percent of the diet.
Why this time of year
By mid-fall the switch is complete: a dozen or more robins in one tree, stripping crabapples or cedar berries, then gone the next day to wherever the fruit is, and the birds you see may be visitors from the north rather than your summer robins.
How to notice it
- Stop expecting robins on the ground; scan fruit trees instead, especially crabapples, red cedar, holly, and hawthorn.
- When you find one robin in fruit, count; flocks of a dozen or more share a single tree.
- Notice the churn: a loaded tree gets stripped in days, then the flock moves on.
- A robin in January is not lost; many winter in Massachusetts every year.
Try this with kids: Find a tree still holding fruit and count the robins working it.
nomadic means wandering wherever the food is instead of holding a territory
Sources
- massaudubon.orgDuring winter and migration especially, robins often travel in flocks, a dozen or more foraging on the same lawn or perching in the same tree; winter foods named include red cedar, American holly, hawthorn, and certain dogwood and crabapple species; many robins spend winter in Massachusetts but are not necessarily the same robins seen in summer, and numbers depend on weather severity and food abundance.
- audubon.orgInsects and earthworms may dominate the menu in spring and summer, but during fall and winter fruits can make up more than 90 percent of the diet; flocks of robins wander, seeking out trees, shrubs, or vines heavily laden with fruit, moving on when the local supply peters out; few individuals actually stay in one place year round.
- extension.illinois.eduContrary to their territorial spring and summer behavior, robins gather in large flocks in fall and winter, shift from invertebrates to berries when earthworms become inaccessible, and many remain in the region year round following nomadic food-driven patterns.
In the guide for October, November, December, January, February