Over its decade-plus of operations, the ABMI has generated a comprehensive dataset on Alberta’s species, their habitats, and the extent and type of human footprint across the province. With this information, the ABMI has developed analyses to predict species' relative abundances and examine species' responses to vegetation and soil types, as well as human footprint in Alberta. These methods have been applied to hundreds of species; this profile provides summary results for one.
The American Robin is a very adaptable bird that can be found in a range of habitats from natural settings such as forests and riparian areas to anthrogenic settings like urban areas, agricultural areas, and campgrounds. They generally prefer edge habitats that can be naturally or anthropogenically created.
Forested Region - Species Habitat Association Graph: Predicted species relative abundance (bars) as a function of vegetation and human footprint type in the forested region. Dots are added to forest types where harvesting occurs and show the predicted species abundance in cutblocks of various ages. Vertical lines represent 90% confidence intervals.
Prairie Region - Species Habitat Association Graph: Predicted species relative abundance (bars) in each soil type and human footprint type in the prairie region. Vertical lines indicate 90% confidence intervals. The presence/absence of trees greatly affects the presence and abundance of many species; therefore, separate figures are presented for treed and non-treed sites in the prairie region.
Linear Footprint Graph: Species relative abundance predicted for habitat with no human footprint compared to habitat in which 10% of the area is converted to either soft or hard linear footprint.
Linear Footprint Graph: Species relative abundance predicted for habitat with no human footprint compared to habitat in which 10% of the area is converted to either soft or hard linear footprint.
The American Robin is adapted to many anthropogenic habitats including urban areas, agricultural areas, and young harvested forested stands. In northern Alberta, the distribution of the American Robin was found to be associated with both higher levels of human development (e.g. campgrounds, well pads, and roads) as well as the availability of non-native earthworms (Cameron and Bayne 2012).
Sector effect graph: Changes to species relative abundance (number above or below bar) attributed to the footprint of five sectors: agriculture, forestry, energy, rural/urban footprint, and transportation. The y-axis shows the percent population change per unit area of the sector's footprint. The x-axis shows the total area occupied by each sector's footprint in the region. The areas of the sector-specific rectangle (equal to the unit effect multiplied by the area of footprint) is the total effect of the sector on the species relative abundance in the region.
Sector effect graph: Changes to species relative abundance (number above or below bar) attributed to the footprint of five sectors: agriculture, forestry, energy, rural/urban footprint, and transportation. The y-axis shows the percent population change per unit area of the sector's footprint. The x-axis shows the total area occupied by each sector's footprint in the region. The areas of the sector-specific rectangle (equal to the unit effect multiplied by the area of footprint) is the total effect of the sector on the species relative abundance in the region.
The American Robin is found throughout Alberta, but is predicted to be most common in the Foothills and Parkland Natural Regions, as well as the southern half of the Boreal Forest Natural Region.
The North American American Robin population is generally considered to be stable to increasing, but it is vulnerable to pesticides and chemical pollution.
Cameron, E.K. and E.M. Bayne. 2012. Invasion by a non-native ecosystem engineer alters distribution of a native predator. Diversity and Distributions 18:1190-1198.
Cornell Lab of Ornithology. 2016. All About Birds: American Robin. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Robin . Accessed May 10, 2016.
Sallabanks, R., F.C. James, N. Vanderhoff, P. Pyle and M.A. Patten. 2016. American Robin (Turdus migratorius) In: The Birds of North America, ed. P.G. Rodewald. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY. https://birdsna.org/Species-Account/bna/species/amerob . Accessed May 10, 2016.
Information from ABMI bird point counts was combined with information from other organizations and individuals:
Photos: TBD
Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute and Boreal Avian Modelling Project. 2018. American Robin (Turdus migratorius). ABMI Website: abmi.ca/home/data-analytics/biobrowser-home/species-profile?tsn=179759.
Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute. 2016. ABMI Species Website Manual, Version: 2016-12-02. Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute, Alberta, Canada. Report available at: abmi.ca.
Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute. 2014. Manual for Species Modeling and Intactness, Version 2014-09-25. Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute, Alberta, Canada. Report available at: abmi.ca.
Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute. 2014. Terrestrial field data collection protocols (abridged version) 2016-05-18. Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute, Alberta, Canada. Report available at: abmi.ca.
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