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Re: Robins as ariel acrobats



Mike and all,

A lot of communal roosting species engage in erratic and high speed flight maneuvers around their staging and roosting areas. This behavior is most likely related to predator confusion, attempts to remain on the "inside" of flocks during a particularly vulnerable period of the day, and competition for the most desireable roosting spots.

Clyde Sorenson
Clayton & Raleigh, NC
clyde_sorenson@ncsu.edu

Mike wrote:

For the past two evenings, I've been amazed by huge swirling flocks of
birds that rarely stay still flying in weird, very fast flights over the
MetroSport parking lot in Durham. When I first saw them from a distance I
thought maybe they were starlings, but they were flying almost like swifts.
Their flight patterns are very fast, varied in tempo, and seemingly
nonsensical. Perhaps most nonsensical is that I realized that they're
common American Robins. For somebody used to perceiving "Turdus Migratoris"
as ubiquitous, fat- bodied lawn ornaments, it was quite amusing to see
hundreds and hundreds of them cavorting at high speed in loopy, zooming,
random flights from tree to tree. Sometimes they change trees seemingly all
at once, and sometimes lone birds zoom around like rockets. If you know how
a cat acts around catnip, well these robins are acting like they've found
birdnip. It looked like a scene right straight out of Hitchcock's "The
Birds". I wondered if they were catching airborne insects like martins, but
think they're probably just having fun or responding to some unfathomable
robin instinct.

Speaking of downtown Durham bird sightings, I've been routinely seeing
Kestrels along the power lines by the Durham Freeway. And last week a
red-shouldered hawk rested on top of one of the shiny newer Duke research
buildings long enough for a friend to get a grainy digital shot of it. All
this just goes to show that it pays to be alert even when coming and going
to work. While none of these might be remarkable, their settings and their
antics make them fun.

Mike Swaim
Duke, by way of western Orange Co., NC