Robins are flocking to the area and no one knows why
“When the Red, Red Robin (Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin’ Along)” ... A lot of San Diegans these days may be singing that catchy tune recorded by Al Jolson in 1926.
American robins, seldom seen in San Diego, now seem to be everywhere.
The NextDoor online app, where local residents post items of interest, is teeming with observations:
• We had robins in our backyard this past week for the first time ever! (University City)
• We are so excited by the robins. Came home to a yard full of them about a month ago. (Bay Ho)
• Last weekend there were hundreds in our yard. It was quite a sight! (La Jolla)
• Is this in San Diego? I didn’t know we had robins here.”
• “I haven’t seen a robin since I left Oregon 35 years ago.”
April Schug has lived in San Diego almost 66 years and says she never spied a robin until a couple of days ago when she walked into her Bird Rock back yard and about a dozen robins swooped up from her pond. “I thought I was re-living the movie, ‘The Birds.’ It was startling, yet they are so beautiful.”
Other locals posted photos of the orange-breasted bird with brownish-gray back and black hood (males), asking: “What is this bird?”
Yes, it is the American robin. And its uncharacteristic appearance here in such huge numbers has local ornithologists stumped.
“The robin glut has been going on since December,” reports Lesley Handa, an ornithologist on the board of the San Diego Audubon Society. “Some birders in the county have seen 1,750 in certain places. This is very unusual for this species.”
On one recent morning, Paul Lehman, who was longtime editor of Birding magazine and created bird range maps for field guides, counted about 1,500 taking flight at dawn from trees at the San Diego Zoo where they had roosted overnight.
He says friends have spotted other massive flocks in the Lake Hodges area near Escondido and in the Poway/Rancho Bernardo area.
The robin population is exploding in San Diego and has increased in other areas of Southern California and Southern Arizona, as well.
Has it ever happened before? Not in recent history.
PhilipUnitt, editor of