This article by Maureen Mackey originally appeared in Medium.com [1] and was this website was given permission to reprint.
During this time of “America in Shutdown,” I am loving the robins that come to visit our small front lawn every day (as they have been for the past month or longer). They’re alert, active, and motivated.
These robins look extremely healthy. Their fat orange chests are puffed out, their white-rimmed black eyes are bright in their dark faces, and their grayish-black feathers command attention.
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They’re completely involved in their hunt for food. They stay separate and apart from each other during this critical venture—distanced but aware.
Each bird stands still for a few seconds, feathers frozen in place as the bird listens, looks, senses. It runs across the grass, stops, listens and looks again, perceiving its potential prey. It cocks its head sharply to see it even better.
And then, in a flash, the robin pecks madly at the dirt, digging with sharp strikes, once, twice, three times — almost always victorious in bringing up a wriggling earthworm to swallow and consume (and feed its young).
Robins are hopeful. They demonstrate keen attention, sure adaptation, and healthy habits, even in tough times.
And here’s what is crazy-true in this time of Covid-19: For most of my life growing up in northern New Jersey and then in New York, I paid little or no attention to this common American bird. It was just there.
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Did I even see it—really see it? Like so many others, I was busy rushing around getting things done.
But there’s a reason this popular little creature is the state bird of not one state, but three (Connecticut, Michigan, and Wisconsin). It’s beautiful, effective, persistent—and part of our lives.
With “the backing of the influential Michigan Audubon Society, legislators adopted the robin as the state bird in 1931, and it became official April 8 of that year,” a piece in The Detroit Free Press explained a few years ago. “The red-breasted bug-gobblers were called ‘the best known and best loved of all the birds in the state of Michigan.’” (Apparently the chickadee lobby had some fervent objections and the Kirtland’s warbler camp had a case to make, too, but such “aviary coups” have failed thus far.)
Scores of material has been written about the prevalent and popular robin, but this telling excerpt from the Journey North program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum is a favorite of mine:
Q. How is a robin’s body adapted to its lifestyle and habitat?
A. Robins have sturdy legs with muscles designed for running or hopping, allowing them to speedily evade predators and efficiently cover open ground while hunting. Their colors are bright enough to attract mates and defend territories without being so bright to alert predators too often. Their syrinx (“song box”) has complex muscles allowing them to sing rich, complex songs that can carry a long distance. Their esophagus is exceptionally stretchy to allow them to eat huge quantities of berries before nightfall in winter, to allow them to survive cold temperatures without being able to eat in the dark. Their intestines are developed for digesting waxy berry coatings and for getting most of the food value out of worms. Their wings have a pointed shape, the most common shape for birds that migrate using a flapping flight. Their tail is medium-length for quick steering as they fly through branches.
I celebrate the robin. I’m grateful for it.
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And when I see it and hear its cheerful songs—and I’m so glad I do!—I take it as a positive sign. This wild bird is demonstrating that life goes on, it’s springtime and creatures are thriving, and we will get through this crisis.
Here’s what’s also true: When it comes to this vivid little creature, “common” doesn’t mean second-class.
This article by Maureen Mackey originally appeared in Medium.com [1] and was this website was given permission to reprint.
This piece was written by Wayne Dupree on May 5, 2020. It originally appeared in WayneDupree.com [5] and is used by permission.
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