Chrysti the Wordsmith > Radio Scripts

Though it's the state bird of Connecticut, Michigan and Wisconsin, the robin is at home everywhere in North America. From the open plains to suburban lawns, these familiar birds enjoy a diet of beetles, cutworms and earthworms, as well as seasonally available berries.

Robins are migratory, and their arrival is a welcome sign of spring. Pairs of the birds nest in trees and buildings, and will generally raise two to three broods each summer.

Early American settlers named the North American robin after a common European species, the robin redbreast, and a small bird with vivid scarlet breast plumage. Europeans had long regarded their robin with affection, citing an old legend that the flames of hell had scorched the bird's breast when it brought humans the gift of fire. Since the bird also appears quite tame and friendly around people, its reputation earned it the moniker Robin, an affectionate form of the popular masculine name Robert.

The name seemed appropriate enough for the red-breasted bird of the New World, though the European and the American creatures are in fact unrelated. The scientific name of the North American bird is turdus migratorius: migratorius because it's a seasonal inhabitant; and turdus, despite what the word may sound like, is the Latin word for "thrush."

Radio Script > Robin