# The robins are back and eating berries
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-robins-are-back-and-eating-berries/50730
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 18, 2001, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-robins-are-back-and-eating-berries/50730 "2001-01-18T18:59:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@scratch1300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch1300)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2001, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-robins-are-back-and-eating-berries/50730/1 "2001-01-18T18:59:58Z")
I haven’t seen a robin in several months and today I look out the window and there are about thirty of them in the hawthorns, eating berries. Now I realize that, contrary to popular belief, robins are here (I’m in New England) all year 'round, hiding out in trees in the swamps – so don’t bother pointing that out. What I’m curious to know is, why _now_? These berries have been ripe since fall; why didn’t the robins eat them in December? Or alternatively, why don’t they wait till spring to leave off their lazy branch potato ways?
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2001, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-robins-are-back-and-eating-berries/50730/2 "2001-01-18T19:56:56Z")
Are you absolutely sure they’re robins? The flocking behavior is unusual; I’d suggest they’re waxwings or even starlings.
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### Author:  [@scratch1300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch1300)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2001, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-robins-are-back-and-eating-berries/50730/3 "2001-01-18T20:15:42Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by lissener \*
> \*\*Are you absolutely sure they’re robins? The flocking behavior is unusual; I’d suggest they’re waxwings or even starlings. \*\*
Yeah, I’m sure. They’re just about four yards away: the American robin, _Turdus migratorius_.
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### Author:  [@scratch1300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch1300)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2001, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-robins-are-back-and-eating-berries/50730/4 "2001-01-18T20:22:33Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by lissener \*
> \*\*Are you absolutely sure they’re robins? The flocking behavior is unusual; I’d suggest they’re waxwings or even starlings. \*\*
Yeah, I’m sure. They’re just about four yards away: the American robin, _Turdus migratorius_.
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### Author:  [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2001, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-robins-are-back-and-eating-berries/50730/5 "2001-01-18T20:34:19Z")
I’m surprised indeed as I always thought that male robins were extremely aggressive to each other.
Maybe this only happens during the mating season when they get territorial.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2001, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-robins-are-back-and-eating-berries/50730/6 "2001-01-18T20:49:31Z")
Although they are mostly territorial and insectivorous in the summer, in the winter Robins gather in large flocks and feed mostly on fruit. My guess is the local flock, in its wanderings, just didn’t happen to stumble on your personal hawthorn tree before now. If they don’t eat the berries now, they will be back later. (And they may move off before they eat everything just to keep predators from keying in on them.)
From [this site](http://birds.cornell.edu/BOW/AMEROB/):
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*
> Once breeding season is over, the sweet-singing and familiar robin of our backyards becomes more furtive and shy. Large nomadic flocks form and range over the countryside in search of berries such as mulberry, sumac, grape, viburnum, and cedar, as they shift from their breeding season diet of insects and earthworms to become wholly vegetarian. By September, many are moving south from the northern parts of the eastern half of the country to winter with southern residents in the Middle Atlantic and Gulf states. In the West, Robins wander broadly in search of food and move generally to areas of lower altitude. But some linger as far north as Canada when food supplies are adequate, so the first robin you see in spring may not have come from too far away.\*\*
And **lissener** , give **scratch** a break! You would have to be a complete Dodo to mistake a Robin for a Starling or even a Waxwing!
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### Author:  [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2001, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-robins-are-back-and-eating-berries/50730/7 "2001-01-18T20:50:33Z")
… Or maybe it only happens with _English_ robins, which are totally different from the American variety.
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### Author:  [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2001, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-robins-are-back-and-eating-berries/50730/8 "2001-01-18T21:00:29Z")
Whoops, meant that as a response to casdave’s post, in case it isn’t clear. Damn this slow computer.
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### Author:  [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2001, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-robins-are-back-and-eating-berries/50730/9 "2001-01-18T22:14:20Z")
I think you are right **Fretful**
Our Robin is called the European Robin.
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/wildfacts/garden\_birds/fact\_files/253.shtml](http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/wildfacts/garden_birds/fact_files/253.shtml)
[http://www.birdsofbritain.co.uk/bird-guide/robin.htm](http://www.birdsofbritain.co.uk/bird-guide/robin.htm)
(nice link that last)
If you look you will see it mentioned that both male and female are territorial, in fact so aggressive are they that Robins are the major cause of death of other Robins.
Years ago I remember Robins being classified as being part of the thrush family _Thruscadae_ including the Blackbird _Turdus Merula_ but maybe I was wrong or it was reclassified - it was well over 20 years ago.
From what I can tell the American Robin is very differant to ours.
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### Author:  [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2001, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-robins-are-back-and-eating-berries/50730/10 "2001-01-19T01:35:08Z")
The American Robin is indeed a thrush.
The robins may be eating the berries now because they may be migrating ones. I used to live in Illinois and there would be some robins year round, contrary to popular belief, as you pointed out in New England. However, there is no way of telling if them’s the same robins that were there in the summer. My guess is that you have a flock that is new to the area, flying thru, and needing fuel (of course) are munching on the berries.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2001, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-robins-are-back-and-eating-berries/50730/11 "2001-01-19T19:48:49Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by casdave \*
> **Years ago I remember Robins being classified as being part of the thrush family _Thruscadae_ including the Blackbird _Turdus Merula_ but maybe I was wrong or it was reclassified - it was well over 20 years ago.**
Sometimes the European Robin _Erithracus rubecula_ (of course, called “The Robin” in Merrie Olde England) has been classified as an Old World Flycatcher (Family Muscicapidae, unrelated to the New World Flycatchers, Family Tyrannidae), and sometimes as a Thrush (Family Turdidae), while the American Robin _Turdus migratorius_ has always been classified as a Thrush. However, these two families are so closely related that they have frequently been merged (along with Old World Warblers), although the combined family is usually called Muscicapidae.
Due to recent advances in genetic analysis, the whole field of bird classification is presently in a state of flux. Suffice it to say that the European and American Robins, while not terribly closely related, may or may not be in the same family, depending on who’s doing the classification and on what day of the week it happens to be.
And the Australian Robins (Family Petroicidae, at least for today) turn out to be something else entirely.
And let’s not get started on all the possible different types of warblers, flycatchers, etc. . .