Mark Mell, age 11, of Omaha, Nebraska, for his question:

Do robins migrate singly, in pairs or in flocks?

The robins migrate in flocks, stopping at sundown to rest through the night. As a matter of fact, they prefer to live in loose flocks through most of the year. They pair off in separate family units only during the nesting season. At this time, they become tame enough to live near us. This robin behavior is quite mysterious. Most wild creatures are more timid of people when they have youngsters to tend.

The red breasted robin was selected as the state bird of Michigan, Wisconsin and Connecticut, which gives some idea of how much we all love him. It's nice to watch him stand straight as a soldier, then suddenly dart off on his jerky, busybody duties. At dawn and sunset, he sings his throaty song. During the day, he also "tup tup Cups" and utters high pitched screams to drive rival robins from his home territory.

This is how he behaves during the nesting season, when his time is fully devoted to tending his family. Sometimes he helps to build the nest and now and then he may sit on the four blue green eggs, while the female takes an airing for herself. Later he takes over the task of teaching the children to fly. If this is the first brood of the season, the female may spend this period in refurbishing the old nest or building a new one for the second brood of the year.

The robins, as we know, build their nests in our gardens and maybe even on window sills. They seem to be bold, partly tame birds with little fear of people. However, for some mysterious reason all this changes in early fall, when the last brood of youngsters has grown up and left home.

Then the robins of the neighborhood usually desert human habitations. They fly off to some wild, woodsy region where they live together in loose flocks. If you walk through their woods, they hear you coming and promptly disappear.

The fall must be an exciting time, for most of them are planning for the migration flight southward. The loose flocks take off from their wild woods in Canada, Alaska and across most of the United States. They fly only from dawn to sunset. When they find a place where there are plenty of berries, the flocks may stay for a few days of feasting.

Migrating robins may spend the winter in the warm southern regions of the United States, in Mexico or in Central America. The same groups stay together and at the first sign of returning spring they fly back together to their former nesting places.

Some experts suspect that the robin is by nature a flocking bird of the wild woods. The flocks stay together in loosely knit groups during the late fall, the migration trips and through the winter. The same pairs stay together during the nesting seasons and sometimes they select the same mates the next season. A robin lives either with the flock or with his small family    and no part of his or her life is spent as a single.