I have quite a few photographs of American Robins, and that’s surprising.

I seldom photograph American Robins, although robins are the subject of my featured gallery for January. Heck, there are times when it seems like I intentionally avoid photographing robins because they are too easy to photograph. That statement may sound like a contradiction, but it’s fact.

Robins are very common most of the year in my area so finding one isn’t difficult. They also aren’t as skittish as many other birds so they don’t fly off when I approach with my camera. They often just look at me, then go about their business. It isn’t a challenge to get a photo of a robin, so I often ignore them. If I didn’t, I’d have thousands of robin photos.

But I will photograph a robin in an attractive setting. And I will photograph robins if I’m not finding many other birds on one of my photo hikes.

So I guess I’ve found a lot of robins in attractive settings through the years — or I’ve had more “unproductive” photo hikes than I care to remember — because I have more than enough photos of robins in my files to create this featured gallery.