Along the gulf coast in the fall, I have witnessed large pre-dawn movements of American Robins that are returning north after presumably realizing that they are over water (the Gulf) as daylight approaches. This return flight can last up to one hour after sunrise, although it typically peaks just before sunrise. I have always assumed this means they were traveling south in the dark hours of the night. I have played around with some nocturnal recording, but have yet to get a flight call of a robin in the spring or fall - about 30 mi north of the Gulf in south-central Louisiana. If they do call, it's probably not much less frequently than other thrushes, buntings, warblers, tanagers, orioles, and sparrows, at least based on my local experience here.
Cheers, Erik Johnson S Lafayette, LA ejohn33 AT lsu.edu On Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 11:54 AM, Ted Floyd <tfl...@aba.org> wrote: > Hi, all. > > I ponder this question a lot. In all my experience in Colorado, I have heard > exactly one (1) flight call from a robin that seemed to be an on-the-go > nocturnal migrant. (For comparison, I've heard more flight calls from > nocturnal-migrant Western Grebes and Eastern Kingbirds in Colorado.) I've > flushed a lot of robins by night, but that doesn't really count. > > In Boulder County, Colorado, then, I'd say that robins are practically > silent as nocturnal migrants, or they simply do not migrate by night. I > frequently see (and hear) heavy, medium-altitude robin passages that go > strong right to around sundown, but then the flights suddenly end at > nightfall. > > Daytime "Vis Mig" of American Robins is striking (visual and audible) in the > Front Range region of Colorado, comparable to the heavy daytime flights of > Common Grackles in early spring. > > Ted Floyd > tfl...@aba.org > Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado > > ________________________________ > From: bounce-5534264-9667...@list.cornell.edu > [mailto:bounce-5534264-9667...@list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Michael > O'Brien > Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 2010 1:59 PM > To: Jeff Wells > Cc: NFC-L@cornell.edu > Subject: Re: [nfc-l] Night flight call station results-Maine-April 1-3 > > Jeff, > I'm interested in your assertion that American Robin is strictly a diurnal > migrant. Perhaps that is true in some areas, but in Cape May it certainly is > not. We regularly see massive American Robin flights at night, in fall at > least. These flights often continue or resume in the first few hours of the > morning and again in the last hour or so of the day. During particularly > heavy flights, the movements may continue longer into the day, but my > estimation is that the bulk of the movement always takes place at night. I > find their behavior to be much like that of Bobolink, only they seem to be > less vocal. It would be interesting to know what others have observed and if > the situation is different elsewhere. My guess is that the main difference, > if any, is that robins call more frequently in certain situations and fly > more quietly in others. > good listening! > Michael O'Brien > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Jeff Wells" <jwe...@intlboreal.org> > To: NFC-L@cornell.edu > Sent: Tuesday, April 6, 2010 2:42:45 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern > Subject: [nfc-l] Night flight call station results-Maine-April 1-3 > > I started my automated recording station for the season here in Maine on > Thursday night, April 1st. Although there were few calls each of the last > three nights, the numbers increased a little each night from about 10 the > night of the 1st to about 30 last night. There were a few Hermit Thrushes > the first night, 6 the 2nd and 12 the night of the 3rd. There were a few > Killdeer each night, a Wood Duck, and 4-10 sparrows each night with Song and > White-throat plus a couple that may be American Tree Sparrow and a junco or > two. A few other items of interest: > > > > -several nights had Herring Gull calls in the middle of the night that I > assume are night migrating birds; > > > > -several nights had the squeal flight calls of American Robins around > midnight. Although I sometimes have what I assume to be local on-the-ground > robins sing and give ground alarm calls in the middle of the night, they > don't give the squeal calls. The acoustics of the recorded squeal calls also > seem more like birds overhead. I suspect that, as unlikely as it seems, that > these were night-flying robins when by all accounts the species is only a > diurnal migrant; > > > > -one night I had what sounded like a bit of song of a night-flying Hermit > Thrush. I typically get some night-flying birds in May that break out in > song or partial song while flying overhead but I had never picked that up > for Hermit Thrush. > > > > I posted some of the call files on my blog at: www.borealbirds.org/blog > > > > Jeff Wells > > > > -- NFC-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
