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From: GA.MAY@forsythe.stanford.edu (mitchell)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: How do robins hunt?
Message-ID: <1991May23.165528.3869@morrow.stanford.edu>
Date: 23 May 91 16:55:28 GMT
Sender: news@morrow.stanford.edu (News Service)
Organization: Data Center, Stanford University, California, USA
Lines: 26

This question came to mind as I was eating breakfast this morning
by a patch of grass on campus (UC Berkeley).  How do robins hunt?

While I was eating breakfast, a pair of red robins was also doing
the same.  One would take a few steps, stop, and very delibrately
stop all motion, with its head erect.  If there was no apparent
cue or trigger, the robin would jog away to another location
a few feet away, again stop, and freeze.  If there was a cue,
the robin would tilt its head towards the ground, favoring
one side of its head or the other.  It was not clear to me
whether the robin was depending on auditory cues or visual.
Once the robin got to the stage of tilting its head towards the
ground, it usually got some unlucky bug.

It was not clear to me that the robins were favoring visual
or auditory cues.  I also have a few budgie prisoners.  Budgies
when they're curious about something will tilt their heads and
clearly favor one eye at whatever caught their attention.  If they
are listening in, it seems that they will stay very still.
Maybe a robin uses both.  I dunno.

thanks,
Mitchell

ps:  if you think they answer might bore other rec.birders,
email to ga.may@forsythe.stanford.edu