Michigan State Bird
Robin
(Turdus migratorius)
Adopted on April 8, 1931.
After the robin, (Turdus migratorius,) was favored in a Michigan Audubon Society contest to choose a State bird, the Michigan legislature made it official. House Concurrent Resolution 30 of 1931 designated the robin (robin red-breast) as Michigan's state bird. Legislators called the robin "the best known and best loved of all the birds in the State of Michigan." Robins were named by early settlers after the familiar robin red-breast of Europe (a bird with similar markings that is not closely related to the American Robin).
The American robin, familiar in the summertime throughout North America, clad in a reddish brown or tawny breast and a loud cheery song, evident in the fact that it is also the state bird of Connecticut, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Michigan State Bird: Robin
Familiar in the summertime throughout North America, the American Robin is seen from Alaska to Virginia. Most people do not know that many Robins spend the entire winter in New England. They roost among the evergreens in the swamps where they feed on winter berries.
Characteristics of the Robin
- Length: 8.5 inches
- Black to dark gray head
- Broken eye ring
- Dull red breast and belly
- White undertail coverts
- Gray upperparts
- Streaked throat
- Thin yellow bill
- Sexes similar-female somewhat paler
- Winter plumage is somewhat paler than Summer plumage
- Juveniles have spotted, whiter breasts
- Common in residential areas where it often forages on lawns
- Often sings very early in morning
- Often found in large flocks outside of breeding season
Michigan House Concurrent Resolution No. 30
The law designating the American Robin as the official Michigan state bird wasHouse Concurrent Resolution No. 30, the Senate concurring, on April 8, 1931. The resolution read, in part:
WHEREAS, A widely and generally conducted contest to choose a State bird, carried on by the Michigan Audubon Society, resulted in nearly 200,000
votes being cast, of which Robin Red Breast received many more votes than any other bird as the most popular bird in Michigan; and
WHEREAS, The robin is the best known and best loved of all the birds in the State of Michigan; therefore
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES (THE SENATE CONCURRING), That the robin be and the same is hereby designated and adopted as the official
State bird of the State of Michigan."
Michigan Statute
The adoption of the robin as the official state bird is therefore not documented in the statutory law of the Michigan Compiled Laws.
Taxonomic Hierarchy: American Robin
Kingdom: Animalia - animals
Phylum: Chordata - chordates
Subphylum: Vertebrata - vertebrates
Class: Aves - birds
Order: Passeriformes - perching birds
Family: Muscicapidae - old world flycatchers
Genus: Turdus Linnaeus, 1758 - robins
Species: Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 - american robin, Mirlo primavera
