American Robin

Taken on March 11, 2012 at the end of Rentenaar Road on Sauvie Island.

I wonder if Robins look exotic to non-North Americans?

American Robin

This Robin came hopping rather aggressively towards me as I was taking pictures of a California Towhee at Sutro Heights Park in San Francisco a week ago last Monday. It was rather odd looking and I thought it might be diseased, but looking at the pictures I think it had just gotten done bathing, although it looks as if its head and neck got the bulk of the water.

American Robin

As I mentioned a few days ago, there have been a lot of immature birds this spring and summer. Some can be a challenge to identify while other are obvious.

This immature American Robin was taken at my sister's homestead. Since Robins are so common, I've seen them in there immature state all my life so they are quite easy to recognize. Also, other than their spotted breast, they look a lot like a mature Robin.
This one was first sitting on a high-line wire along the road running past their property. It then flew across the road, into their yard and landed at the top of some dead branches.

American Robin

Pro Photo in Portland had a nature photo contest that ended on April 1st. I thought it would be fun to enter but the pictures had to be taken in Washington county and I didn't have anything I felt was good enough to enter that I took in that county. I really wanted to enter the sleepy goose image, but that was taken in Multnomah county I think. So on March 31 I took a quick walk through TRNWR over lunch and got this picture of a Robin. I don't necessarily think it is a great picture of Robin to illustrate what a Robin looks like, but as a picture I really like it. I also took some more images of the Bullfrog and entered a couple of those. It was a good experience having done it because I learned a few things about the process and why and when you save as 72 dpi vs. 300 dpi.

American Robin

The classic American Robin. Not much more to say. It was ahead of me just off the path at TRNWR yesterday hunting worms. I actually got a shot of it just after it caught a worm, but the picture isn't as good as this one. I also got a few of it in that classic "head cocked" position. I always thought, along with others, that they could actually hear the worms under the ground. After doing some research, I learned that studies have shown that they are actually getting a very good look with one of their eyes and are looking for tell tale signs of the worm such as the worm poking out of the ground (evidently they do this, especially after a rain) and castings or pellets of mud on the soil surface indicating the entrance to a worm hole.