American Robins — Entry for Feathered Friends — Show Me A Photo Contest Round 149

Been away from doing much photography, and even from blogging for a while... Happy New Year, everyone!

We had a recent extreme cold and snow week, and brings out a lot of birds.

This is my entry for the Feathered Friends - Show Me A Photo Contest Round 149 challenge organized by @nelinoeva in the Feathered Friends Community. Following this week's theme of "twigs" (that got in the way).

All photos by @labyrinths

Whenever we get a strong cold front, the Robins show up!

Official entry photo:

These are American Robins (Turdus migratorius), which are actually relatives of the European Blackbird.

Anyway, we had some late afternoon winter sun, and they were busy in our rowan tree, eating the remaining wrinkled berries from last fall.

Of course, getting a clean shot was almost impossible.

The robins get rather boisterous and flappy, and always move around... supposedly the old rowanberries have fermented slightly by now, so they are actually getting mildly "drunk," or so some local birders have told me.

This one finally came out in the open... but turned its back!

They are all puffed up and "fat" looking to insulate themselves from the cold.

I'd pretty much given up on the whole thing when this one turned around and give me a frontal shot:

Not exactly what I had hoped for!

But at least you can see that lovely russet-red in the late winter sun.

But then he finally came up for air!

You can see why refer to them as "fat" in the wintertime. They are actually fairly sleek birds during the rest of the year.

Seconds after that last shot, one of our sparrowhawks darted through the yard and the robins scattered all over, so that was the end of the photo opportunity!

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

All images are our own, unless otherwise credited!