Why are robins invading OKC?
If you've been seeing a lot of robins in the Oklahoma City area, you are not alone.
The influx of rob ins is the subject of much chatter on social media. Mark Howery, a wildlife diversity biologist for the Oklahoma Department of Conservation, has noticed them, as well.
“I' ve had at least eight calls the last week about people seeing robins and I saw them myself yest er day ,” Howe ry said
Wednesday. “They seem to be coming out of the country and into the city in droves. I drove up to my office( in Oklahoma City) yesterday and I saw easily 900 robins between Norman and I -40, so there are a lot of robins moving around.”
Howery said it's normal for robins to winter in and around the rural parts of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, but he thinks the birds are now swarming to the urban areas
looking for food.
“Robins are normally eating worms and insects this time of year, but now that it is cold they can't get into the ground to get those so they are looking for fruit ,” he said. “Usually they go to cedar berries, but this late in the winter I imagine they are running out of food and that is what is prompting them to come into town.”
Ornament al berry plants commonly used for landscaping in urban areas such as holly and Indian Hawthorn bushes have become emergency food sources for robins during the snow and record cold, Howery said.
“They (robins) feed on just about any kind of fruit they can swallow, so they come to hollies and Indian Hawthorns, juniper, and if they get really desperate t hey will eat nandinas (another shrub with berry clusters),” he said. “Nandina is kind of the last resort it seems like.”
Robins, of course, are not the only birds desperately seeking food to survive the frigid weather. Howery said some species of birds are in peril.
“Birds like Eastern phoebes, who are wintering up here will get hammered,” Howery said. “Typically, when we have
prolonged snow, it generally will kill off a lot of the half-hearty birds. It's hard on blue birds. It' s hard on wrens. It's hard on roadrunners.”
Howe ry compared the current Oklahoma weather to the winters of 1977 and 1978 when it was not as cold but more snow.
“I don't think this is going to wipe out our wrens and our roadrunners like those two winters did, but I think they are going to take a hit,” he said. “We are not really going to know until this thing is over. We are not going to know who the survivors are.”
Of course, humans can
help by putting out seed and other food for birds.
“Water is less critical because they can get the moisture they need from snow ,” Howe ry said. “Any food ( people) can get out for birds would be good.”
Howery recommends a homemade suet mixture that he uses in his bird feeders that is one part lard, one part peanut butter and two parts corn meal. It has the consistency of bread dough and is high in fat and protein, he said. Another good emergency food source for mockingbirds, robins and bluebirds is raisins, he said.
“People who have bird feeders out are just getting birds in droves,” Howery said. “I have gone from having about 40 birds hitting my feeders to about 300. This is a bad, bad weather on birds.”