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Articles

Vol. 3 No. 1 (1972)

NOTES: THE PRESENT STATUS OF THE NORTHWESTERN RACE OF THE ROBIN IN CALIFORNIA

Submitted
August 12, 2025
Published
January 1, 1972

Abstract

The 5th edition (1957) of the A.O.U. Check-List of North American Birds states that the northwestern race of the Robin (Turdus migratorius caurinus) breeds from southeastern Alaska to northwestern Oregon and winters south to central western California (Point Reyes, San Geronimo). As far as California is concerned, essentially the same information appears in The Distribution of the Birds of California (Grinnell and Miller, 1944), although the additional statement is made that caurinus is a “rare winter visitant to the northern coastal section of state.” Ned K. Johnson (personal correspondence) advises me that the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at Berkeley contains two specimens of caurinus taken farther south in California: a male from Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, collected 20 December 1939, and a female from Cottonwood Spring, Riverside County, collected 23 October 1945. There appear to be no other records for this well-marked race, which has been considered largely resident within its breeding range.

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