Think you know all about robins? Think again.

Becoming expert at bird identification requires years of study and experience, but pretty much anybody can recognize a robin, writes Jerry Butler in Family.

There are just so many of them for Americans to see — 350 million in the continental United States. This number puts them in second place behind redwing blackbirds and in front of European starlings as North America’s most populous bird.

Robins are familiar birds, and that familiarity breeds — not contempt, in this case, but misconceptions. Common as they are, these birds are an “unknown known” for many.

One misconception is that the robin arrives in spring. Not so. They live here all year round. See Wednesday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette to learn more about this familiar songbird, one of the first to begin nesting in the spring.

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