# I know the robin in my front yard isn't psychic - but what is it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 17, 2003, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-the-robin-in-my-front-yard-isnt-psychic-but-what-is-it/161988 "2003-03-17T14:08:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2003, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-the-robin-in-my-front-yard-isnt-psychic-but-what-is-it/161988/1 "2003-03-17T14:08:06Z")
Ok, I’m watching a robin in my front yard, walking around, stopping suddenly, and jabbing it’s head into the lawn and coming up with a dirt covered worm. Nothing out of the ordinary right? Well my question is … how the heck does the bird know where the worm is. It can’t see it right? So how does it know where it is? Does it sense it? Feel it? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2003, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-the-robin-in-my-front-yard-isnt-psychic-but-what-is-it/161988/2 "2003-03-17T14:28:27Z")
[How Robins Find Worms.](http://fid.anacortes.k12.wa.us/staff/new%20birds/American%20Robin.htm) > [@](#): > > Food: Robins eat many things. They eat earthworms, cherries, grapes, choke cherries, tomatoes, insects, small snakes, mollusks, tiny fish, beetles, caterpillars, ants, termites, cutworms, cicadas, and weevils. You may have seen a robin in your yard, cocking its head and standing very still. They do this to find worms. People used to think this was to listen for the vibrations of the worm, inching along, but more resent studies have shown that **what they are actually doing is looking for the worms**. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2003, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-the-robin-in-my-front-yard-isnt-psychic-but-what-is-it/161988/3 "2003-03-17T14:39:59Z")
Time to air a fact I learned about (European ) robins and worms:- Whenever you dig the garden a robin will follow you closely and grab the worms. This behaviour is believed to to relate to the actions of wild pigs that roam ( or did roam in the case of England ) the forests and woods. Pigs spend a lot of thier time grubbing up the ground looking for acorns and other goodies. Robins follow close behind grabbing the worms that are exposed. So when a robin follows you while you dig your garden he thinks that you are a pig and only there to find him a ready meal. ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2003, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-the-robin-in-my-front-yard-isnt-psychic-but-what-is-it/161988/4 "2003-03-17T14:45:46Z")
I am planning on tilling our garden this weekend, because the weather turned for the better. I’ll keep an eye out. As for the robins grabbing a worm from my front lawn, I only wonder this because the grass in my front lawn is thick, and hasn’t been thatched in a while. So if that robin was grabbing a worm by sight, thats pretty darn amazing… ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2003, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-the-robin-in-my-front-yard-isnt-psychic-but-what-is-it/161988/5 "2003-03-17T14:54:43Z")
I’ve seen blackbirds running back and forth across the ground (and pigeons do a sort of ‘dance’ thing) - I heard somewhere that earthworms mistake the vibrations as being indicative of rainfall and they come to the top of their burrows, I don’t know how true that is. ---
**Author:** ![Scarf-Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Scarf-Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarf-Ace)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2003, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-the-robin-in-my-front-yard-isnt-psychic-but-what-is-it/161988/6 "2003-03-17T14:58:50Z")
As a kid I dropped orange juice and digestive biscuits on a lawn, the amount of worms that surfaced was astonishing like the attack of the juice-slurping worms or something. Irrelevant, but interesting! ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2003, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-the-robin-in-my-front-yard-isnt-psychic-but-what-is-it/161988/7 "2003-03-17T15:01:12Z")
Birds can learn. I’ve got about two acres. And when I mow my lawn the local swallows hear it and congregate. When I scare up the bugs they go to town on them. ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2003, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-the-robin-in-my-front-yard-isnt-psychic-but-what-is-it/161988/8 "2003-03-17T15:23:50Z")
**Jonathan** - I have ten acres, two of which are mowable. And the swallows do the same thing after I mow… It’s fun to watch my dog try and catch them, he’s quick, but not that quick. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2003, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-the-robin-in-my-front-yard-isnt-psychic-but-what-is-it/161988/9 "2003-03-17T16:23:18Z")
I have seen the same sort of behaviour in west Africa where , just before the rainy season, it is the practice to burn off the old grass land to make way for new growth. Just in front of the advancing flames you will see a line of birds ( mainly white egrets ) waiting for insects and small mammels trying to get away from the fire . ---
**Author:** ![andymurph64](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@andymurph64](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andymurph64)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2003, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-the-robin-in-my-front-yard-isnt-psychic-but-what-is-it/161988/10 "2003-03-17T16:37:42Z")
When I mow the lawn, I get company of several birds. They don’t land but buzz me and the lawnmower like a swarm. Many small, white moths and other insects get forced up when mowing and they catch them in mid air.