A merican Robins such as the one shown in Dan Sudia's photo at the right occur in many places other than suburbs. In North America's wilderness areas their niche is that of forest edges and woods openings .
Robins prefer such semi-open areas to deep, shadowy, mature forests.
Before America's settlers arrived, robins benefited if a fire or storm opened up a forest. By the same token, when the settlers came, robins benefited from the ensuing logging and clearing. Thus, one reason robins are common in the suburbs is that the suburbs, with their widely spaced trees, open lawn areas, and occasional weedy spots, from the robin's perspective, have a great deal in common with a forest edge, or a part of the forest that has been ravaged by fire or a storm. Of course, it shouldn't be thought that man's destruction of nature has in general benefited wild plants and animals. Many other species whose niches occurred only in deep forest suffered severely from these same changes.