As a self-professed nature nerd, I’ve become accustomed to common names for plants being misleading. Rose of Sharon, for instance, is not a rose but a hibiscus. It follows that names for animals may ...

American robins have returned to northern Alaska. A male is now perched above me in a balsam poplar tree on this bench of well-drained land upon which sits the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus.

Both the male and female American robin are gray-brown birds with yellow bills and reddish-orange breasts, but the male’s head is usually darker than the female’s. Robins in the eastern part of the ...

American robins have returned to northern Alaska. A male is now perched above me in a balsam poplar tree on this bench of well-drained land upon which sits the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus.

American robins are common songbirds that are easily recognizable by their orange breasts. Robins are skilled hunters that use their keen eyesight and hearing to locate earthworms on the ground.