Species-Specific Management (SSM)

Eastern Robin

The eastern robin (Turdus migratorius migratorius) has long been the traditional herald of spring in the Northern states. However, many robins over winter as far north as New England. In many instances, human "progress" has tended to be detrimental to wildlife habitat. The robin is the exception. Urbanization has actually allowed robin populations to increase. Robins are more numerous now than they were before the arrival of the European settlers. It lives equally well in uninhabited areas.

Robins have three essential requirements: food, water, and cover. These requirements can be, and often are, met in forested areas of any size, rural areas, and even suburban or urban areas. Management of robins in these 3 general area types will be presented below.

A general rule for increasing the number of robins within a specific area is to strive for maximum variety in the species of shrubs and trees and in the landscape itself.

There are many management activities that can assure stable or even increased population levels of the eastern robin. These activities cause considerably less conflict with human land development than those for most other species of wildlife.

Suburban and Urban Habitats

1. Food is the most important. Bird feeders will adequately meet the robin's food requirements. The feeders should be filled with dry white bread, or sunflower seeds. However, almost any seeds will be eaten and even table scraps are attractive to robins. Robins readily use table butter from scraps.
2. Bird baths should be placed close to bird feeders. The baths provide bathing opportunities and if these baths are kept fairly clean, they can provide a source of drinking water.
3. Both the bath and feeder should be placed in a fairly open area. Shade should be available very near the bath and feeder. Robins tend to check feeders and baths for danger before coming in to them. The shade tree will allow the birds to do this before bathing and feeding.
4. Robins will tend to abandon feeders in the summer to forage on invertebrate prey and available berries. Earthworms are the preferred food item. The short grass of well groomed lawns provides excellent foraging areas for robins.
5. The robin will consume any available fruit. However, it prefers the berries from flowering dogwood, sorghum, hackberry, mulberry, sassafras, and spiceberry. Planting of these species will help robin populations.
6. The robin will nest in crotches of trees, on tree branches, under eaves, or on a constructed nesting platform. Nesting material can be provided by putting out bunches of short string, cloth, yarn, or hair. Mud is used to cement the inside of the nest. Mud can be provided by wetting small areas of bare dirt. This wetting should take place in the early spring to be of most help to the robins.
7. Robins may utilize nesting platforms, constructed out of weathered lumber, and placed in partly shaded spots along branches.
8. Nesting platforms can be built and placed in trees or in the shelter of overhanging eaves on sheds or porches.
9. Robins prefer the following trees for nesting: crabapple, oaks, dogwood, hawthorn, and maples. Mixed shrub borders of barberry, forsythia, lilac, rhododendron, and mountain laurel also seem attractive to nesting robins. These species should be maintained close to open foraging areas such as a well-groomed lawn.
10. Robins are attracted by certain herbaceous plants, such as: oak, dogwood, mulberry, mountain ash, American holly, hawthorn, rhododendron, laurel, and pine species.
11. The above species attract robins because they fill a variety of needs: (a) food, either direct food sources (e.g., berries) or insect attractants which the robins then utilize; (b) cover, especially the dense, evergreen species; and (c) nesting and roosting sites.
12. In forested areas robins must have a good overstory and a good understory; this dichotomy can be maintained by proper cutting operations such as selective thinning, which opens up the forest canopy enough to provide light for growth of an understory. Thinning techniques not only increase the amount of food and cover utilizable by the robins, but also increase the basic diversity of the landscape, one of the major goals in robin management.
13. Managing for maximum diversity, and leaving the landscape as irregular as possible are the general rules when planting vegetation for the robin's use.
14. Robins feed on over 200 species of insects. Most commonly consumed species are: beetles, millipedes, ants, cutworms, wireworms, sowbugs, flies and cockroaches. Robins will also eat small snakes.
15. Since human developments seem to have increased robin populations, the problem of over-population can occur. This problem directly affects individual bird health. Managers may limit food available to robins if they desire to maintain a stable population.
16. Robins are excellent environmental indicators. Population health is directly related to the health of the environment.
17. The use of all chemical and pesticides should be avoided. Robins frequently die from eating earthworms that have ingested toxins.

Rural and Woodland Habitats

1. In rural and woodlands areas, robins are dependent upon herbaceous plants. These plants include: mulberry, oaks, flowering dogwood, mountain ash, American holly, and hawthorn. Planting and proliferating these species will aid robin populations. Oak trees provide food, shelter, and cover, as does the flowering dogwood. These two species can be central in a management plan.
2. The boundaries (edges) between woodlots and fields, or fence-rows and fields, are attractants to robins and provide for their needs and thus should be maximized.
3. Fence-rows which are allowed to grow up with dense shrubs and trees provide some of the best food and cover for robins; fence-rows attract insects which robins utilize as an important food source.
4. In more wooded areas, rhododendron, mountain laurel, pine or brush thickets should be present to provide cover.
5. Thinning operations will allow the understory vegetation to flourish. Understory vegetation will provide food, shelter, and nesting sites. Thinning should be done in a manner that will provide maximum undergrowth.
6. Selective cutting should be used to open the forest overstory. This creates small openings on the forest floor within which robins prefer to forage. These openings should be made in several places throughout the area to be managed.
7. The transition between habitat types (i.e., wooded areas and cultivated field) or "edge" is important to robins. Farmland provides the best habitat for robins, since it is usually patchy with abundant edge. In any case, edge should be increase or maintained.
8. Agricultural crops provide cover and food for robins in the summer months. The crops provide habitat for insects and in turn the insects provide food for the robins. Small plots of grain crops can be planted to provide food and cover for robins in the summer. However, in larger crops, the use of pesticides is detrimental to robins. All toxins should be avoided (also see #12 above).
9. Fence-rows also provide food and cover for robins. They should be allowed to "grow-up." Fence-rows tend to attract insects, thus providing food. Trees such as dogwood, oaks, mulberry, mountain ash, and American holly should be encouraged to grow in the fence row.
10. Prescribed burning can be an excellent management tool for creating robin habitats. Prescribed burning should be done near fence rows where such practices stimulate insect activity (see #7 above).
11. If insects are lacking, a controlled burn may be beneficial to stimulate a marked increase in the number of insects available as a food source. Using brush piles or thickets is again recommended.
12. In more wooded areas, earthworms can provide both food and nesting material. Robins seem to prefer earthworm casts over mud for cement in nest building. Earthworms can be encouraged by dumping loads of manure onto moist areas (see #8 above).
13. Food habits in woodland areas are much the same as in urban areas (see #'s 6 and 7 above).
14. Be prepared to work with farmers and local officials in order to accomplish all of the above management operations.
15. Because robins accumulate toxins in their flesh from farm fields and lawns, and because they are a primary prey species for many birds of prey, they are an important element in the food chain. Robins are an important environmental indicator species (see #8 above).
16. Keep records on robin populations observed.

Contributions by Jason Lampkin (1991), Wendy Parker (1992), Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0321

This Web site is maintained by R. H. Giles, Jr.
Last revision January 17, 2000.