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Tuesday, November 28, 2000

Visit from family of robins makes homeowners' hearts flutter

Last week an excited person, Gloria Rouse, who lives on Reagen Lane, called. She and her husband Roy have lived here only a short while, since their retirement. Wanting to enrich their retirement with more birding, they have fixed their yard for birds, putting feeders and birdbaths so they can be seen from every window.
   Looking out a front window that morning, and seeing an unfamiliar form in the birdbath, she got her binoculars and took a closer look. The birds enjoying her facilities were American robins, not just one bird but a whole family. They were splashing, crowding, throwing water about. When she went to the back of the house, she discovered that robins were there also.
   Recognizing robin
   Everyone knows how a robin looks. It is a middle-sized bird with a dark, gray-brown head, back and tail. Its bill is yellow and its underparts are mellow, brick-red. Robins are common and widespread. In the middle west, robins are the sign of springtime, but in South Texas we see robins in winter, on vacation. In the areas in which they nest, robins are known for sweetly sung pre-dawn songs in April and May. Robins do not nest in this area and seldom sing here.
   Where robins vacation varies greatly from year to year, depending mostly on available food. Their diet consists of insects, seeds and berries. They can often be seen working their way across fields, golf courses and lawns in search of earthworms. Large flocks of migrating robins are sometimes found on Christmas counts in Aransas Pass. Other years there may be none. I remember a cold count in Flour Bluff when they were gathered in the pine forest on Flour Bluff Road. They were harvesting the berries on the understory of Brazilian pepper trees.
   Some of their favorite fruits are found on the trees many gardeners consider to be almost weeds. They love ripe and even over-ripe chinaberries, which they sometimes consume until almost drunk. They also like beautyberry and pyracantha.
   The Latin name of this bird, turdus migratorious, says it all ... turdus, it seems, is Latin for thrush... but migratorious means wanderer. The European robin, also called robin redbreast, is smaller. It is similar in form, color and behavior to the eastern bluebird. It was introduced in this country but did not flourish.
   Other visitors
   Besides robins, the Rouses' yard has hosted small flocks of green jays.
   "They like the berries and nuts in the squirrel feeder,'' Rouse said. She commented on the number of migrating hummingbirds that had visited her feeders this fall, then told of a different bird that has also learned to eat from the hummingbird feeders... a golden-fronted woodpecker.
   The Rouses are not the only one with an acrobatic woodpecker. Maxine Smith, of Daisy Drive, sent photos of hers. The funny bird was curled up under the base of the feeder, tail braced against the bottom, neck contorted to allow its bill to dip into the holes.


Phyllis Yochem, a Corpus Christi resident, has studied birds of Texas since 1960.

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