American robin

3.3

A common North American songbird with a red-orange chest

noun
/əˈmɛrɪkən ˈrɑbɪn/

Specialized

: mirlo americano

The bright rust-red breast of the American robin makes it one of the most recognizable songbirds in North America.

Examples

Photo (color): A young American robin captures an earthworm.

Academic text (1993)
As spring arrives, you can often see an American robin hopping across the lawn in search of worms.
My grandmother enjoys watching an American robin build its nest in the tree outside her kitchen window.

Synonyms

robin

vsAmerican robin

5 1.0

A medium bird with a rust red breast often seen in North American gardens

is used mainly to stress its fame as a familiar songbird

Turdus migratorius

vsAmerican robin

Specialized

1 9.8

A large North American bird with a red breast called the American robin

is the common everyday name people use outside scientific contexts

Surface Forms

American robin singular

American robins plural

Morphology

American + robin

The meaning is directly and literally compositional: 'American' specifies origin/association with the United States and 'robin' names the bird species, so 'American robin' denotes the robin found in America. This adjectival + noun pattern is straightforward and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will understand the phrase.

Etymology

American robin comes from early European settlers who saw a new bird with a red breast and called it a robin because it looked like the familiar European bird called 'robin'. They added American to show it was the robin of North America, so the name now means the common red-breasted North American songbird.