how far south do Ohio robins travel for winter?

Answer 1

I wondered about this, so I looked it up. Half of your robins go to the far south, the other half stay home.


From: http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/robin/FAQSWintering.html#2

Robins are a migratory species, but their migration is far more complicated than simply a shift southward. There seems to be a great deal of individual variation in where they spend the winter, though males are far more likely to remain in the north than females. There are good reasons. Come spring, the male’s main job is to find and defend a territory. The females’ main job is to create and lay the eggs. This requires a lot of good nutrition and food energy, so females go where they are sure of good food supplies in winter. Yes, they have to use up food energy to migrate north. But migrating and laying eggs are easier for well-nourished birds.

The male sticks around and the female goes on vacation.

I love it.

Answer 2

Actually you have Robins even during winter in Ohio. They tend to stay in wooded areas, but they are around.

Migration in Robins is rather interesting. Populations do move south during winter, with a more northern population replacing the birds you have there. We see a large number of Robins move in during the winter here in Texas. Some of them probably come from Ohio.

Answer 3

Good question. You can look at a field guide map online, but the question of where exactly the robins from Ohio end up is not exactly known. Migratory connectivity is a hot topic of study right now. It's difficult to determine where exactly specific birds that summer or winter in a particular spot spend the rest of their lives. Bird banding can help answer this question, but only a small fraction of birds that are banded are ever recovered somewhere else. Researchers are currently using isotope ratios from feathers to try to figure your question out, because hydrogen/deuterium ratios in rainfall vary with latitude, so researchers can then guess at where a bird was when it grew in those feathers. Maybe more than you wanted to know, but it's something that people are working on.

Answer 4

I see many robins up here.

Answer 5

why are all the answers so dull and short these days?