Some people find that bird watching is a fun and relaxing hobby. It can also be educational for children and adults alike. One of the most beautiful and interesting birds to watch is the robin. Attracting robins to your home can be easy. Because they are bug-eaters, as well as fruit eaters, and hunt by sight, they are fun to watch dashing across the yard after a worm or grasshopper. Their beautiful warbling sound is music to bird-lovers ears. It has been described as a “rich cheer-up, cheer, cheer-up” that can be heard at dawn and dusk.
To increase your chances of keeping the robin around, there are a few things that you can do. First, along with bugs, robins love fruit. Try planting some of their favorite shrubs and trees such as crabapple, grape, and elderberry. Also, robins enjoy the fruiting mulberry and holly bushes.
It may seem to be retroactive to do so, but maintaining a leaf pile in your yard will help attract worms, and with worms come robins. If you use pesticides in the rest of your yard, try to keep the poisons out of this section of yard.
You can also make a robin-nesting tray for the female robin to build a nest on as robins will not build a nest inside a birdhouse. You can do this by finding a fork in a tree and placing a small platform securely in the fork. Provide, for example, a trash can lid with mud inside, as the female robin will line the inner bowl of the nest with mud using her breast. Robins do not mind being close to people. If you have a wreath on your door, for example, you may find a robin’s nest inside! Robins will breed from April to July and will appreciate a platform feeder loaded with raisins, apples, grapes and currents. Another way of attracting robins with fruit is a Fruit Bird Feeder, which can be purchased from lawn and garden stores and bird watching enthusiast websites.
Robins love water. After eating all of those bugs and fruit, they are very thirsty! Set up a birdbath and watch, as the robins not only drink from it, but splash around and bathe, rather messily at times. It is fun to watch!
Robins have a lot of personality and are very beautiful. If you use these tips, you too will be able to enjoy the robin.