How Do They Do That?!?

We have been living in our new place for a little over two weeks now.  Our home has lots of windows which I appreciate greatly.  I enjoy all of the sunlight, the view and more recently the opportunity to watch all the birds.  There has been several occasions where I am either in the house or sitting out in the yard with friends visiting and I have never experienced anything like this before.  What I mean is that I have experienced birds landing in the yard and hopping around before.  What I haven't experienced is them hopping around, pecking at the ground and then yanking up a worm! This is completely fascinating to me and at the same time a little gross.  I usually get really excited and start hollering while at the same time gagging at the thought of the worm dangling in the bird's throat.  

I was so fascinated by this that I had to figure out how they find the worms. They just hop around the yard, stopping occasionally, and then WHAM they peck the ground and pull out a worm.  So this is what my friend Lisa figured out to clear up the mystery: (Thanks Lisa!)

• A study done in the 1990s isolated each of the robin's various senses to see which the robin used the most.  It turns out that hearing is the most important sense - that the robin listens for the small noises a worm makes while burrowing along the ground.  
• The robin does use its other senses too - watching for movement, feeling for rumbling with its feet.  But the main sense that helps out the most is the robin's hearing.  One sense a robin does NOT use is its sense of smell.  The robin has a really poor sense of smell, and it would not help out a robin at all. 

If you haven't realized, I am really intrigued by all of this.  I hope that if you ever visit our house you will get to experience this as well. Now I just need to figure out what sound a worm makes when burrowing along the ground!

These photos were taken by our downstairs neighbor.  He was able to catch the robins in action! Thanks Mike!