Robins are a familiar sight in backyards and parks, with their bright red breasts and cheery song. As omnivores, robins eat a variety of foods including fruits, seeds, insects, and worms. When it comes to fruit, robins have some definite favorites that provide them with the nutrients and energy they need to thrive.
What fruits do robins eat?
Robins enjoy eating a variety of fruits including berries and larger fruits. Some of their favorite berry choices are:
- Strawberries
- Blueberries
- Raspberries
- Blackberries
- Elderberries
These soft, juicy berries provide robins with hydration and natural sugars for energy. They also contain antioxidants and nutrients like vitamin C. Robins especially love berries when they are fully ripe in summer and early fall.
In addition to berries, robins will sample larger fruits like:
- Cherries
- Apple slices
- Chopped pear
- Mashed banana
- Watermelon chunks
- Pieces of peach/apricot
- Orange segments
Fruits like apples, pears, peaches, and cherries provide dietary fiber along with vitamin C and potassium. The juicier fruits like oranges and watermelon offer hydration as well. Robins like that larger fruits can often be more filling than berries alone.
Why do robins prefer fruit?
There are several key reasons why fruits make up a significant portion of a robin’s diet:
- Fruits provide natural sugars that robins can quickly convert to energy. The simple carbohydrates in fruits are easy for robins to digest.
- Fruits are often hydrating, which helps robins meet their daily fluid needs.
- Many fruits contain antioxidants that support robin health and immunity.
- Fruit pulp and seeds provide fiber to support healthy digestion.
- Fruits are often readily available from plants, shrubs, and trees in robins’ habitats.
- Soft fruits are easy for robins to open up and eat compared to seeds or nuts.
- Ripe, sweet fruits have an appealing taste and scent that robins flock to.
In the summer breeding season, adult robins seek out calcium-rich fruits like mulberries, dogwood berries, and cedar berries to support egg production. Fruits help satisfy robins’ relatively high calorie and nutrition needs while breeding, nesting, and rearing young.
When do robins eat fruit?
Robins will eat fruits throughout spring, summer, and fall. Their typical fruit consumption aligns with natural fruiting seasons:
Spring
- Mulberries, juneberries, strawberries
Summer
- Raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, cherries, elderberries
Fall
- Grapes, cranberries, autumn olive berries, fruiting shrubs
In warmer regions, robins may eat winter-ripening fruits like oranges, loquats, grapes, and berries. During the winter months, robins rely more on worms and insects than fruits. They may still eat frozen or lingering fruits.
Backyard birders note robins actively seek out fruiting plants from late spring through early fall to incorporate fruit into their daily diet. They tend to forage for fruit in the mornings and afternoons when their energy needs are highest.
How do robins know which fruits to eat?
Robins use their senses of sight, smell, and taste to identify fruits to eat:
- Sight – Robins visually seek out brightly colored red, blue, orange, and black fruits and berries. Their color vision helps spot fruit in shrubs, vines, and trees.
- Smell – Fruits release ripening aromas that robins can detect through their keen sense of smell.
- Taste – Through taste, robins determine if a fruit is sweet, ripe, and palatable to eat.
Over time, robins create mental maps of productive fruiting locations and revisit them annually. They may also try new fruits and remember the taste. Robins will return to fruiting plants where they’ve found an abundant source of their preferred berries.
How do robins eat fruit?
Robins have a few techniques for consuming fruits:
- For softer berries, robins simply pluck them off stems and swallow them whole.
- They may pick larger fruits apart into pieces before eating them.
- Robins sometime mash fruits against a branch to open them up.
- For drier fruits like apples, robins cleverly soak pieces in puddles to soften them up.
- Robins are able to juice berries and fruits in their beaks, then swallow the juices.
Robins do not need to land while eating most fruits. They can efficiently pluck fruits while still aloft. Backyards with fruit shrubs or trees give robins easy access from the air.
Do robins eat fruit seeds?
While robins consume berry and fruit pulp, they often ingest the small soft seeds as well. The seeds provide fiber, minerals, and nutrients robins can digest. However, robins will usually avoid or spit out larger pits and seeds that are hard to break down.
Many small berry seeds actually pass through a robin’s digestive system unharmed. This helps plants propagate and spread as the seeds are dispersed through robin droppings. So robins play an important role in distributing seeds from berry plants they eat.
Do robins eat ornamental fruit?
In addition to naturally growing berry bushes and fruit trees, robins will happily eat ornamental fruiting plants in yards and gardens, including:
- Fruiting crabapple trees
- Cherry trees
- Blueberry bushes
- Winterberry holly bushes
- Dogwood trees
- Elderberry
- Grapevines
- Magnolia trees
- Mulberry
- Hawthorn
- Sumac
- Pyracantha
Robins recognize these ornamentals as excellent fruit sources. Gardeners are often happy to share their fruiting plants to support local robins.
How to attract robins with fruit
You can welcome robins into your yard by landscaping with their favorite fruits. Try adding some of these fruiting plants:
Plant | Type | Season |
---|---|---|
Strawberry | Perennial | Spring – Summer |
Blueberry | Shrub | Summer |
Raspberry | Bramble | Summer |
Blackberry | Bramble | Summer – Fall |
Elderberry | Shrub | Summer |
Grapevine | Vine | Fall |
Apple | Tree | Fall |
Cherry | Tree | Summer |
In addition to planting fruiting trees and shrubs, you can offer fruit in backyard feeders, shredded on platforms, or speared on sticks. Just be sure to only provide fresh, natural fruits free of sugars or processing. Monitor feeders to promptly remove any rotting fruit that could spread disease.
With ample fruits options in your landscape or feeders, you are sure to be rewarded by busy robins feasting on their favored berries and larger fruits. Listening to robins sing among the fruiting branches adds to the joy of cultivating backyard habitat.
Conclusion
Robins have a strong preference for fruits as a significant part of their varied diet. They dine on many types of juicy berries, as well as larger fruits that provide hydration and key nutrients. By planting berry bushes, fruit trees, and ornamental fruiting plants, you can attract hungry robins to your yard. Offering fresh fruits in feeders or platforms is another great way to provide for robins. Watching robins munch on their favored fruits and seeing them return every year will bring you great pleasure as you support these charismatic songbirds.