posted
Has anyone else wondered about this? Do they hear them, see them, smell them? Do they only pick up ones that have surfaced? Because it seems to be quite a honed skill. They dip their beak into the earth and pull up a fat, juicy worm! I am impressed.
Posts: 7050 | Registered: Feb 2004
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According to this document, they use a combination of skills, but there is evidence that they can hear worms digging around. (There is also one other conflicting experiment that implies they use visual cues alone).
In short there is very little research on this subject.
OK, so I can't fix the link above, but if you type "how do robins find worms" at ask.com there are two pretty interesting links. The one above is the second one.
<Edit: fixed link --PJ>
[ May 17, 2005, 11:27 AM: Message edited by: Papa Janitor ]
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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Reading further, the general consensus (among the small number of people who ponder this question online) is that Robins, like most birds, use vision to locate prey, however, they do have the ability to locate earthworms by sound alone when they are hidden from sight.
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
Nah, they get a batman to find out where those villainous worms are hiding, then hop on their motorcycles to get there first. While the bat is still searching for a parking space for his car, the early bird gets the worm.
Posts: 8501 | Registered: Jul 2001
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Actually, I believe birds don't smell very well. But their vision is phenomenal. Our herons can see us through windows high above them. Robins hunt our gardens apparently using sight. This is my observation.
Posts: 3141 | Registered: Apr 2000
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