"Honest as a robin on a springtime windowsill," sang Randy Travis in the hit song, "Deeper than the Holler." Turns out the robin isn't an automatic harbinger of spring. However, that little bugger singing on your windowsill at 6 in the morning isn't a liar either.
Some of the earliest migrators to return back to Southwest Ohio from southern climes and establish breeding territories, they’d follow food sources back. The early bird gets the worm - and the prime location. We know and associate robins and worms. At least that’s what I was taught and thought in grade school. Turns out seeing a robin after New Year's is about as good a predictor of the coming spring as a groundhog seeing its shadow, meaning not very good at all. Where they actually spend the winter is more complicated than the temperature and the calendar.
It’s true, robins often migrate great distances. Some have been documented flying from Alaska to Mississippi. It’s also a fact that robins are found in all 48 continental United States year round, and some barely migrate at all, maybe 60 miles, maybe less. They even spend winters in Minnesota and Canada. But they don’t show up at traditional backyard winter bird feeders. When we don’t see them hopping around yards, it’s natural to assume they all flew south. The truth is, they follow the food, like just about everything else.
Read the complete column here: Seeing this bird doesn't mean winter is over
