The Eating Habits of American Robins

These warm-orange chested thrushes, American robins, have a seasonal diet. In simple words, American robins change their diet with the change in seasons! American robins are omnivorous – relying on soft-bodied insects, fruits, and plants. This forage of American robins allows them to enjoy a variety of wholesome and nourishing diets. Their ability to catch prey with the help of running and stopping makes them distinctive. If you’re lucky, you might have a chance to see American robins paying a visit to your bird feeder! That being said, we’ll look at the diet to better understand, “what do American robins eat?”

Insects and Animals

American robins are the insect-eaters and also feed on other small, soft-bodied animals. Depending on their habitat, they can easily detect the insects and animals to feed on. Their ability to detect, catch and pick up the insects gives them an abundance of food options. Typically, American robins can eat mealworms that they usually find in bird feeders. To have a nutritious diet, American robins eat slugs because of their soft body. While it may seem that American robins would feed on every insect, it’s not so true! American robins don’t eat ants because that isn’t part of their diet. Besides, robins wouldn’t prefer to eat ants when they can have a variety of other nutritious diets. Moreover, ants can harm birds like American robins.

Fruits and Vegetables

Their change in the diet allows them to switch to other forage options other than insects. In fact, 60 percent of the diet of American robins relies on cultivated fruits including a variety of berries. They enjoy a wide variety of fruits in their diet that they find in abundance in fall and winter. Hence, American robins eat berries, blueberries, and strawberries. Besides, American robins also eat oranges if they are cut up. American robins also eat other fruits like raspberries, sliced apples, cherries, cranberries, and other cut-up fruits. Typically, they consume their fruits a bit late in the day after finishing their other forage.

In the winter, American robins eat a bunch of fruits found abundantly in trees and vines. For example, American robins can eat raisins, dried berries including cranberries, and more. Along with the fruits, American robins also feed on a variety of vegetables. It’s mainly since they are omnivores and they can switch to plant-diet as well! That’s why; American robins can eat seeds, sunflower seeds, bird seeds, and bread! Usually, birders would include this variety of seeds in their bird feeders so they can consume them. Moreover, American robins also eat suet. So be sure to include it in your bird feeders!

What American Robins Don’t Eat?

While American robins have a variety of forage that they like, they don’t eat most of the foods. They wouldn’t eat all of the insects, crawling, flying, or the ones that can attack them! They also avoid eating a variety of seeds because they are one of the small thrushes. That said, American robins don’t eat cicadas and wasps. Robins aren’t considered the bee-eaters, though! Besides, they also don’t eat other birds.