Animal
American robin
The American robin is a bird with an orange tummy. It hops on lawns looking for worms and lays bright blue eggs.
The American robin is a very familiar bird over most of North America, with a gray-brown back, a warm orange breast and a cheery song. It runs across lawns pulling up earthworms, eats lots of berries in winter, and builds a mud-lined nest for its sky-blue eggs.
Turdus migratorius, the largest North American thrush, breeds from Alaska and Canada to Mexico and is numerous and widespread, with an estimated breeding population of 370 million (Partners in Flight, 2020). It switches between invertebrates and fruit through the day and the year, and its dependence on lawns makes it a useful indicator of pesticide pollution.
Photo: Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Meet the American robin
The American robin has an orange tummy.
Its back is gray and its head is dark. It has a yellow beak. Robins sing a happy song in spring.
The American robin is a fairly large songbird with a round body, long legs and a fairly long tail. It is the largest thrush in North America, 20 to 28 centimeters long and about 77 to 85 grams.
Robins are gray-brown on the back with a warm orange breast, a dark head, a yellow bill and white streaks on the throat. Males usually have blacker heads than females. Young robins look different: they have spots on their backs and chests. In spring you may hear the song, which sounds like 'cheer-up, cheerily, cheer-up, cheerily'.
Turdus migratorius is the largest North American thrush (family Turdidae), 20 to 28 centimeters long with a wingspan of 31 to 40 centimeters and a mass of about 77 to 85 grams. Cornell calls it a useful reference point for judging the size and shape of other birds.
Adults are gray-brown above with orange underparts, a dark head, a yellow bill, a white-streaked throat and small white spots around the eye. Females have paler heads that contrast less with the back. Juveniles are heavily spotted below and mottled above. Plumage varies across the range: many western birds are paler, and breeding birds on the Canadian Atlantic coast are richly colored.
Quick facts
- Group
- Bird
- Length
- 0.2 to 0.28 m
- Wingspan
- 0.31 to 0.4 m
- Weight
- 0.08 to 0.09 kg
Where it lives
American robins live all over North America.
They live on lawns, in parks and in woods. Some robins fly south for the winter, and some stay.
American robins live across North America, from Alaska and Canada to Mexico. You can find them on lawns, fields, golf courses and city parks, and also in wild places: forests, mountains up to near the treeline and even the tundra.
Robins are often called a sign of spring, but many stay in their breeding range all winter. They just spend more time up in trees eating berries, so you see them less. Others travel south in flocks, often flying by day.
The IUCN lists the species as native and resident in Canada, the United States and Mexico, wintering also in the Bahamas and Cuba. Breeding habitat spans lawns, parks, farmland, deciduous and pine forests, regenerating burns and tundra; in the arid Southwest it breeds mainly in mountain conifer forests.
Migration is partial and variable. Audubon notes that robins migrate in flocks, often by day, that some winter as far north as Canada in local concentrations, and that a spring 'first robin' may have wintered only a few kilometers away. Winter distribution shifts from year to year with local fruit crops.
Continent
Its habitat
Where can you find this animal?
- Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
- Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
- Visits for part of the year · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Lawns, parks, farmland, forests, mountains and tundra from Alaska and Canada to Mexico. Many robins stay all winter; others move south in flocks.
Places: Canada, United States and Mexico.
Source: iucn-red-list · checked October 2026
Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Counts of GBIF records of wild observations (human and machine) and preserved specimens. Records include introduced populations, vagrants, escaped or released animals and misidentifications, so a country with records is not necessarily part of the native range.
Wild sightings have been recorded in United States, Canada, Mexico, UK, Netherlands, Bahamas, Iceland, Portugal and 17 more places.
Source: gbif · checked October 2026
Visits for part of the year · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Some robins spend the winter in the Bahamas and Cuba.
Places: Bahamas and Cuba.
Source: iucn-red-list · checked October 2026
Range maps show where scientists say an animal lives, often country by country. An animal may live in only part of a country shown, and sightings records can include animals that wandered far from home.
Worms in the morning, berries later
Robins love earthworms.
They run, stop and look at the ground. Then they pull up a worm! In winter they eat lots of berries.
Robins eat both small animals and fruit. In spring and summer they eat lots of earthworms, insects and snails. A robin runs a few steps, stops, tilts its head to stare at the ground, then pulls up a worm. Scientists think it finds worms by sight, not by hearing them.
In fall and winter robins eat a lot of fruit, such as chokecherries, dogwood, sumac and juniper berries. They even change foods during the day, with more worms in the morning and more fruit later on.
The diet combines invertebrates, especially earthworms, insects and snails in spring and summer, with an enormous variety of fruit; Audubon estimates fruit at perhaps 60 percent of the diet year-round. Young are fed mainly insects and earthworms. Cornell notes a daily pattern too, with more earthworms in the morning and more fruit later in the day.
Foraging robins run a few steps, stop and stare with the head cocked; Audubon says they apparently locate earthworms by sight rather than by hearing them underground. Robins that eat only honeysuckle berries can become intoxicated.
Built for lawns and trees
Robins have long legs for running.
Their yellow beak pulls worms out of the ground. Their orange breast is easy to spot.
A robin's long, strong legs let it bound across lawns and brace itself while it tugs an earthworm out of the soil with its bill. When it lands, it often flicks its tail down several times.
In flight, look for a white patch on the lower belly and under the tail. Robins are strong, straight and fast fliers. In long grass they may hop, or fly low just above the ground with slow, powerful wingbeats.
Cornell describes the robin as a large-bodied, long-legged thrush that pulls earthworms from the ground using its strong legs and probes with its bill. It often stands erect with the bill tilted up to survey its surroundings and habitually flicks its tail downward on landing.
In flight it shows a conspicuous white patch on the lower belly and undertail. Flight is strong, straight and fast; in long grass robins may hop or fly just above the ground with slow, powerful wingbeats.
Robin's-egg blue
The mother robin builds a nest of grass and mud.
She lays three to five sky-blue eggs. Mom and Dad both feed the hungry chicks.
The female builds the nest, usually on a branch hidden among leaves, but sometimes on gutters, porch lights or window ledges. She presses grass and twigs into a cup using the wrist of one wing, strengthens it with mud from worm castings and lines it with soft dry grass.
She lays three to five unmarked sky-blue eggs and keeps them warm for 12 to 14 days. The chicks hatch helpless and almost naked. Both parents feed them, and they leave the nest after about two weeks. A pair can raise up to three families in a year.
Females choose sites on horizontal branches under dense foliage, typically in the lower half of a tree, and build from the inside out, shaping the cup with the wrist of one wing before reinforcing it with mud and lining it with fine grass. The finished nest is about 15 to 20 centimeters across.
Clutches are three to five sky-blue eggs (Audubon: usually four), incubated by the female for 12 to 14 days. Both parents feed the young, which fledge after about 13 to 16 days. Pairs raise one to three broods. Survival is low: only about 40 percent of nests produce young, and only a quarter of fledglings survive to November.
Songs, roosts and courtship
Robins sing very early in the morning.
In winter, lots of robins sleep together in big groups in the trees.
Robins are among the earliest birds to sing at dawn in spring and summer, often starting before first light. Males sing to claim territories and to attract females, puffing out their white-striped throats and spreading their tails.
In fall and winter robins form flocks and sleep together in big roosts. Some winter roosts hold a quarter of a million birds! In summer, females sleep at their nests while males gather at roosts, and young robins join the males once they can look after themselves.
Males arrive on breeding grounds before females and defend territories by singing and sometimes fighting. Courtship includes singing, tail-spreading, wing-shaking and throat inflation, and pairs may approach each other with bills held wide open and touching. Audubon describes the song as among the earliest heard at dawn.
Outside the breeding season robins forage in flocks and gather in communal roosts, sometimes of a quarter-million birds. In summer males roost communally while females sleep at the nest, and newly independent young join the males' roosts.
Did you know?
A lucky robin can live to be 14 years old.
A lucky robin can live to about 14, but on average the whole robin population is replaced about every six years.
The oldest recorded American robin was 13 years and 11 months old, yet the population turns over on average every six years.
A common bird that warns us
There are lots of robins.
They are not in danger. Robins can get sick from chemicals sprayed on lawns.
The American robin is not in danger. The IUCN Red List rates it Least Concern, and Partners in Flight estimated in 2020 that there are about 370 million breeding robins.
Because robins feed so much on lawns, they can be poisoned by pesticides. That makes them a kind of early warning: when robins get sick, it can be a sign that chemicals are harming the environment.
The global assessment (IUCN, 2020) lists Turdus migratorius as Least Concern. The North American Breeding Bird Survey found a slight increase of about 0.13 percent a year from 1966 to 2019, and Partners in Flight (2020) estimates a global breeding population of 370 million.
Individual robins live short lives on average: Cornell notes that the whole population turns over about every six years, although the oldest recorded robin was 13 years and 11 months old. Foraging on lawns exposes robins to pesticides, which is why they can serve as indicators of chemical pollution.
IUCN Red List
How is the american robin doing in the wild?
- Least Concern (this animal)
- Near Threatened
- Vulnerable
- Endangered
- Critically Endangered
- Extinct in the Wild
- Extinct
Least Concern
Not at risk of disappearing from the wild right now.
See the IUCN Red List assessment · The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021.3
Amazing facts
-
Some winter robin roosts have a quarter of a million birds.
In winter, some robin roosts hold about a quarter of a million birds.
Cornell reports winter roosts of up to about 250,000 robins.
-
Robins eat more worms in the morning and more fruit later.
Robins change their menu through the day: more earthworms in the morning and more fruit in the afternoon.
Diet shifts within the day, with more earthworms early and more fruit later.
-
A lucky robin can live to be 14 years old.
A lucky robin can live to about 14, but on average the whole robin population is replaced about every six years.
The oldest recorded American robin was 13 years and 11 months old, yet the population turns over on average every six years.
-
A robin builds its nest using its wing like a tool.
A female robin shapes her nest by pressing grass into a cup with the wrist of one wing.
Nests are built from the inside out, the cup shaped with the wrist of one wing before mud is added.
Words to know
- thrush
- a family of songbirds that includes robins and bluebirds
- roost
- a place where birds gather to rest or sleep
- fledgling
- a young bird that has just left the nest
- pesticide
- a chemical used to kill insects or other pests
- migrate
- to travel to a different place for part of the year
- territory
- an area an animal defends from others
Discovery challenge
-
What color are robin eggs?
What color are American robin eggs?
Which describes the eggs of the American robin?
- Sky blue
- Spotted brown
- Bright red
Show the answer
Sky blue
Robin eggs are sky blue.
They are unmarked sky blue or blue-green.
Unmarked sky-blue or blue-green, usually four to a clutch.
-
How does a robin find worms?
How does a robin find earthworms in a lawn?
Which sense do robins apparently use to locate earthworms?
- By looking
- By smelling flowers
- By digging tunnels
Show the answer
By looking
It stops, looks hard at the ground, then grabs the worm.
It runs, stops, tilts its head and looks; it finds worms by sight.
Sight: Audubon notes they do not appear to locate worms by hearing them underground.
-
What do robins eat a lot of in winter?
What do American robins eat most in fall and winter?
Which food dominates the robin's diet in winter?
- Berries and fruit
- Fish
- Seeds from feeders only
Show the answer
Berries and fruit
In winter robins eat lots of berries.
They eat lots of fruit such as dogwood, sumac and juniper berries.
Fruit; Audubon estimates it at perhaps 60 percent of the diet year-round.
-
Why should we be careful with lawn sprays?
Why can robins be hurt by lawn chemicals?
Why are robins used as indicators of chemical pollution?
- They find much of their food on lawns
- They drink from swimming pools
- They sleep on the grass
Show the answer
They find much of their food on lawns
Robins eat worms on lawns, so sprays can make them sick.
They feed on lawns, where pesticides can poison them.
Foraging largely on lawns exposes them to pesticides, so their health reflects chemical use.
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Identify the American robin and describe how young and adults differ.
- Describe how robins find earthworms and how their diet changes with the seasons.
- Describe the robin's nest, eggs and life cycle.
- Explain why robins can be indicators of pesticide pollution.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why might robins eat more worms in the morning?
- If you see a robin in winter, has it come back early, or did it never leave?
- What could families do to keep lawns safe for robins?
Try at home or in class
- Watch a robin on a lawn for five minutes and count how many times it runs and stops.
- Mix soil and a little water to see how mud can hold dry grass together, like a robin's nest.
Key vocabulary: thrush, roost, fledgling, pesticide, migrate, territory
Where these facts come from
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN terms of use (no redistribution of Red List data or range maps))
- GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF Occurrence Search , Global Biodiversity Information Facility (CC0 1.0 (backbone); occurrence counts are facts derived from records under CC0, CC BY and CC BY-NC)
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Turdus migratorius (American Robin), Red List assessment 2020 , IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
- American Robin overview , Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds
- American Robin life history , Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds
- American Robin identification , Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds
- American Robin , National Audubon Society, Guide to North American Birds
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file: Public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA only (credited on each page))
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated October 24, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.