Subject: [Tweeters] Birds of the Week--Robins
Date: Mar 14 08:01:19 2006
From: W WM WOODS - wwwbike at verizon.net


My story about Robins is a bit different. Did you realize that you can identify bird subspecies by their internal parasites?
Many years ago when our daughters were young, we took a six-weeks vacation driving through British Columbia and on to Alaska, where we visited Juneau and the Mendenhall Glacier. The program at the Visitor Center included an address by an entomologist. He proceeded to tell us all about Robins and their subspecies. Apparently, each subspecies has a different species of parasites (tapeworms) that inhabit their digestive tracts, and the Robins may be identified by autopsy. The Robins that we see in Washington in the winter migrate north to Alaska to nest, and our summer Robins, the larger of the two subspecies according to the entomologist, migrate south to California and Mexico to spend the winter.

Erin Woods

Woods Tree Farm
Redmond, Washington