WESTERN BIRDS Kobin 



GENUS PLANESTICUS: WESTERN 

 ROBIN. 



Western Robin: Planesticus tnigratorius propinquus. 

 FAMILY— THRUSHES, BLUEBIRDS, ETC. 



On the western coast, breeding from Alaska to south- 

 em California, and from the Pacific coast east to the 

 border of the Great Plains, wintering from British 

 Columbia and Wyoming south to Guatemala, is found 

 the Western Robin, which differs from its eastern cousin 

 in lacking the white tips to tail feathers. It has the 

 same gray back, black head, tail and wings, striped 

 throat and rufous breast. Along its southern range it 

 nests in the mountains, coming into the valleys, foothills, 

 and cities only during the winter and late spring months. 

 They are very fond of the berries of the pepper trees 

 and sometimes whole flocks of them will be about on 

 the ground, and in the trees eating them. Again, I will 

 have only a bird or two in the garden all winter long. 



The call note resembles that of the eastern bird, and 

 the song is also unmistakably that of a Robin. In 

 Oregon and Washington the birds nest about the streets 

 and homes, sing their rollicking song, build their bulky 

 grass and mud nests, and save for the white tail-tips, are 

 the same jolly birds that we knew "back east." 



I regret having to record that because of their fond- 

 ness for cherries and olives in the west, many of these 

 interesting birds are killed, despite the fact that they 

 are protected by law. The birds prefer wild fruits and 

 it is believed that when raids are made in orchards it 

 is because of a lack of wild berries. We are advised to 

 plant the Russian mulberries along the devastated 

 orchard, rather than to kill birds that eat so many cut- 

 worms, caterpillars, weevils, and other noxious insects. 



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