page_title: American robin
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: American robin / Description
caption_attribution_description: Turdus migratorius English: A juvenile American Robin at Smithsonian National Zoological Park, Washington, USA.
context_page_description: The American robin is a migratory songbird of the true thrush genus and Turdidae, the wider thrush family. It is named after the European robin because of its reddish-orange breast, though the two species are not closely related, with the European robin belonging to the Old World flycatcher family. The American robin is widely distributed throughout North America, wintering from southern Canada to central Mexico and along the Pacific Coast. It is the state bird of Connecticut, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
  According to some sources, the American robin ranks behind only the red-winged blackbird as the most abundant extant land bird in North America. It has seven subspecies, but only one of them, the San Lucas robin of Baja California Sur, is particularly distinctive, with pale gray-brown underparts.
  The American robin is active mostly during the day and assembles in large flocks at night. Its diet consists of invertebrates, fruits, and berries. It is one of the earliest bird species to lay its eggs, beginning to breed shortly after returning to its summer range from its winter range.
context_section_description: The eastern subspecies of the American robin (T. m. migratorius) is 23 to 28 cm (9.1 to 11.0 in) long with a wingspan ranging from 31 to 41 cm (12 to 16 in), with similar size ranges across all subspecies. The species averages about 77 g (2.7 oz) in weight, with males ranging from 72 to 94 g (2.5 to 3.3 oz) and females ranging from 59 to 91 g (2.1 to 3.2 oz). Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 11.5 to 14.5 cm (4.5 to 5.7 in), the culmen is 1.8 to 2.2 cm (0.71 to 0.87 in) and the tarsus is 2.9 to 3.3 cm (1.1 to 1.3 in). The head varies from jet black to gray, with white eye arcs and white supercilia. The throat is white with black streaks, and the belly and undertail coverts are white. The American robin has a brown back and a reddish-orange breast, varying from a rich red maroon to peachy orange. The bill is mainly yellow with a variably dark tip, the dusky area becoming more extensive in winter, and the legs and feet are brown.
  The sexes are similar, but the female tends to be duller than the male, with a brown tint to the head, brown upperparts and less-bright underparts. However, some birds cannot be accurately sexed on the sole basis of plumage. The juvenile is paler in color than the adult male and has dark spots on its breast, and whitish wing coverts. First-year birds are not easily distinguishable from adults, but they tend to be duller, and a small percentage retain a few juvenile wing coverts or other feathers.
caption: Juvenile
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 7D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2010:06:06 13:28:25", "Image Artist": "Ken Roberge", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "2009", "Image ExifOffset": "231", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "8257", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "8381", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6441", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/100", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "1250", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:06:01 05:29:45", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:06:01 05:29:45", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "53/8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "5", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "400", "EXIF SubSecTime": "99", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "99", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "99", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "5184", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3456", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "8222", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "5184000/907", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "691200/119", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}