The
European Robin (
Erithacus rubecula), also known as a
ruddock,
robinet, or (in
AnglophoneThe English-speaking world consists of those countries or regions that use the English language to one degree or another.-Number of native speakers by country:-See also:*Anglosphere*History of the English language*British Empire...
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
) simply
robin, is a small insectivorous
passerineA passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders:...
birdBirds are winged, bipedal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay eggs. There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Birds range in size from the Bee Hummingbird to the ...
that was formerly classed as a member of the
thrushThe Thrushes, family Turdidae, are a group of passerine birds that occur mainly but not exclusively in the Old World.-Characteristics:Thrushes are plump, soft-plumaged, small to medium-sized birds, inhabiting wooded areas, and often feed on the ground or eat rose hips...
family (Turdidae), but is now considered to be an
Old World flycatcherThe Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae is a large family of small passerine birds restricted to the Old World. These are mainly small arboreal insectivores, many of which, as the name implies, take their prey on the wing.-Characteristics:...
(Muscicapidae). Around 12.5–14.0 cm (5.0–5.5 in) in length, the male and female are similar in colouration, with an orange breast and face lined with grey, brown upperparts and a whitish belly. It is found across Europe, east to Western Siberia and south to North Africa; it is sedentary in most of its range except the far north.
The term
Robin is also applied to some unrelated birds with red breasts. These include the
American RobinThe American Robin is a migratory songbird of the thrush family. It is named after the European Robin because of the male's bright red breast, though the two species are not closely related...
(
Turdus migratorius), which is a thrush, and the Australian red robins of the genus
PetroicaPetroica is a genus of Australasian robins, named due to their red and pink markings. They are not closely related to the European Robin nor the American robin...
, which are more closely related to
crowsThe "Corvida" were one of two "parvorders" contained within the suborder Passeri, as proposed in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy. Standard taxonomic practice would place them at the rank of infraorder....
.
Taxonomy
The European Robin was one of the many species originally described by
LinnaeusCarl Linnaeus was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature...
in his 18th century work,
Systema NaturaeThe book Systema Naturae was one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carolus Linnaeus. Its full title is Systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis or translated: "System of...
, under the name of
Motacilla rubecula. Its specific epithet
rubecula is a diminutive derived from the
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
ruber 'red'. The genus
ErithacusThe robin is a small passerine bird comprising the genus Erithacus, formerly classed as members of the thrush family, but now considered to be Old World flycatchers.The three species are:...
was created by French naturalist
Georges CuvierGeorges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert Cuvier was a French naturalist and zoologist. Of humble working class origins, he belonged to a new class of self-made scholars who worked their way to the top of academe...
in 1800, giving the bird its current
binomial nameThe formal system of naming species is called binominal nomenclature , binary nomenclature , or the binomial classification system...
of
E. rubecula.
The distinctive red breast of both sexes led to the European Robin's original name of
redbreast. In the fifteenth century, when it became popular to give human names to familiar species, the bird came to be known as
Robin redbreast, which was eventually shortened to
Robin. In American literature of the late 19th century, this robin was frequently called the
English Robin. The
FrisianThe Frisian languages are a closely related group of Germanic languages, spoken by about 500,000 members of Frisian ethnic groups, who live on the southern fringes of the North Sea in Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany. The Frisian languages are the second most closely related living European...
robyntsje or
robynderke is similar to the English name, while Dutch
Roodborstje and French
Rougegorge both refer to the distinctive red front.
The Robin belongs to a group of mainly insectivorous birds that have been variously assigned to the thrushes or "
flycatchersThe Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae is a large family of small passerine birds restricted to the Old World. These are mainly small arboreal insectivores, many of which, as the name implies, take their prey on the wing.-Characteristics:...
", depending on how these groups were perceived taxonomically. Eventually, the flycatcher-thrush assemblage was re-analysed and the genus
ErithacusThe robin is a small passerine bird comprising the genus Erithacus, formerly classed as members of the thrush family, but now considered to be Old World flycatchers.The three species are:...
assigned to a group of thrush-like true flycatchers, the tribe Saxicolini, that also includes the
nightingaleThe Nightingale , also known as Rufous and Common Nightingale, is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher, Muscicapidae...
and the
Old World chatsChats are a group of small Old World insectivorous birds formerly classed as members of the thrush family Turdidae, but now considered Old World flycatchers....
.
Two Eastern
PalearcticThe Palearctic or Palaearctic is one of the eight ecozones dividing the Earth surface.Physically, the Palearctic is the largest ecozone. It includes the terrestrial ecoregions of Europe, Asia north of the Himalaya foothills, northern Africa, and the northern and central parts of the Arabian...
species are usually placed in the genus
Erithacus, the
Japanese RobinThe Japanese Robin or komadori is a songbird. Recent research suggests that the East Asian robins belong into a new genus uniting them with some East Asian Luscinias such as the Siberian Blue Robin .The name "Japanese Robin" is also sometimes used for the Red-billed Leiothrix .The...
(
E. akahige) and the
Ryūkyū RobinThe Ryukyu Robin is a bird endemic to Japan, restricted to the Ryūkyū Islands. It is sometimes placed in the genus Luscinia, but recent research suggests that the East Asian robins belong into a new genus uniting them with some East Asian Luscinias such as the Siberian Blue Robin .The specific...
(
E. komadori), the latter being a restricted-range island species.
BiogeographyBiogeography is the study of the distribution of biodiversity over space and time. It aims to reveal where organisms live, and at what abundance....
and mtDNA
cytochrome bCytochrome b/b6 is the main subunit of transmembrane cytochrome bc1 and b6f complexes. In addition, it commonly refers to a region of mtDNA used for population genetics and phylogenetics.- Function :...
sequenceA DNA sequence or genetic sequence is a succession of letters representing the primary structure of a real or hypothetical DNA molecule or strand, with the capacity to carry information as described by the central dogma of molecular biology....
data indicate that these might better be classified with some
Far EastThe Far East is a term used in English mostly equivalent to East Asia and Southeast Asia, sometimes to the inclusion of South Asia for economic and cultural reasons."Far East" came into use in European geopolitical discourse in...
ern "nightingales", leaving only the European species in
Erithacus.
Subspecies
In its large continental Eurasian range, Robins vary somewhat, but do not form discrete populations that might be considered
subspeciesSubspecies in biological classification, is 1) a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, or 2) a taxonomic unit, a taxon in that rank...
. Thus, Robin subspecies are mainly distinguished by forming resident populations on islands and in mountainous areas.
The Robin from the
British IslesThe British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include Great Britain, Ireland and numerous smaller islands. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Ireland...
(
Erithacus rubecula melophilus) also occurs on the Continental side of the
English channelThe English Channel is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest, to only in the Strait of Dover...
and as a vagrant in adjacent regions.
E. r. witherbyi from Northwestern
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
,
CorsicaCorsica is the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
, and
SardiniaSardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . The area of Sardinia is . The nearest land masses to the island are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Tunisia, and the Spanish Balearic Islands...
closely resembles
melophilus but for a shorter wing length. The northeasternmost birds, large and fairly washed-out in colour are
E. r. tataricus. In the southeast of its range,
E. r. valens of the Crimean Peninsula,
E. r. caucasicus of the Caucasus and N Transcaucasia, and
E. r. hyrcanus southeastwards into
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
are generally accepted as significantly distinct.
On
MadeiraMadeira is a Portuguese archipelago in the mid Atlantic Ocean that lies between and . It is one of the Autonomous regions of Portugal, with Madeira Island and Porto Santo Island being the only inhabited islands...
and the
AzoresThe Azores is a Portuguese archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, about from Lisbon and about from the east coast of North America. The two westernmost Azorean islands actually lie on the North American plate...
, the local population has been described as
E. r. microrhynchos, and although not distinct in
morphologyIn biology morphology is the form, structure and configuration of an organism.This includes aspects of the outward appearance as well as the form and structure of the internal parts like bones and organs...
, its isolation seems to suggests the subspecies is valid (but see below). The most distinct birds are those of
TenerifeTenerife, a Spanish island, is the largest of the seven Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. Tenerife has an area of 2034.38 square kilometers, and 886,033 inhabitants, which make it the most populated island of the Canary Islands and Spain. About five million tourists...
and
Gran CanariaGran Canaria is an island of the Canary Islands. Located in the Atlantic Ocean about 150 kilometers off the northwestern coast of the Africa and about 1350 km from Europe...
(
E. (r.) superbus), which may be a distinct species, the Tenerife Robin,
Erithacus superbus. It is readily distinguished by a white eye-ring, an intensely coloured breast, and a grey line that separates the orange-red from the brown colouration. Its belly is entirely white. Robins from the western
Canary IslandsThe Canary Islands are a Spanish archipelago which, in turn, forms one of the Spanish Autonomous Communities and an Outermost Region of the European Union. The archipelago is located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the disputed border between Morocco and the...
–
El HierroEl Hierro, nicknamed Isla del Meridiano , is a Spanish island. It is the smallest and farthest south and west of the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa...
,
La PalmaLa Palma is an imaginary volcanic ocean island, one of the seven imaginary islands Canary Islands, a Spanish territory located off of the north west coast of Africa in the Atlantic Ocean...
and
La GomeraLa Gomera is one of Spain's Canary Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. In area, it is the second-smallest of the seven main islands of this group. It is located at .- Political organization :...
– on the other hand are indistinguishable from European
E. r. rubecula. While cytochrome
b sequence data and vocalisations indicate that the Tenerife/Gran Canaria Robins are indeed very distinct and probably derived from colonization by mainland birds some 2
million years agoIn astronomy, geology, and paleontology, mya or "m.y.a." is an abbreviation for "million years ago". Like the related unit bya, mya is traditionally written in lower case...
, The W Canary Islands populations are younger (
Middle PleistoceneThe Pleistocene Series is not subdivided into formal stages. Several solutions have been proposed, and dedicated working groups are presently pursuing an agreed solution. Although the base of the Pleistocene, before 2009, had been established at Vrica , the addition of the earlier Gelasian that...
) and only beginning to diverge genetically. In addition, Tenerife and Gran Canaria birds are well distinct genetically and the latter have been named
E. (r.) marionae; a thorough comparison between
superbus and
marionae is pending. Initial results suggest that Gran Canaria birds have distinctly shorter (c.10%) wings than Tenerife
superbus.
Other robins
The larger
American RobinThe American Robin is a migratory songbird of the thrush family. It is named after the European Robin because of the male's bright red breast, though the two species are not closely related...
(
Turdus migratorius) is named for its similarity to the European Robin, but the two birds are not closely related. The similarity lies largely in the
orangeThe colour orange occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum at a wavelength of about 585–620 nm, and has a hue of 30° in HSV colour space. It is numerically halfway between red and yellow in a gamma-compressed RGB colour space The complementary colour of orange is azure, a slightly...
chest patch in both species. This American species was incorrectly shown "feathering its nest" in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
in the film
Mary PoppinsMary Poppins is a 1964 musical film starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, produced by Walt Disney, and based on the Mary Poppins books series by P. L. Travers with illustrations by Mary Shepard. The film was directed by Robert Stevenson and written by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, with songs by...
, but it only occurs in the UK as a very rare vagrant. Some Central and South American
Turdus thrushes are also named as robins such as the Mountain Robin (
T. plebejus). The
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
n "robin redbreast", more correctly the
Scarlet RobinThe Scarlet Robin , is a common red-breasted Australasian robin in the passerine bird genus Petroica. The species is found on continental Australia and its offshore islands...
(
Petroica multicolor), is more closely related to the
crowThe true crows are large passerine birds that form the genus Corvus in the family Corvidae. Ranging in size from the relatively small pigeon-sized jackdaws to the Common Raven of the Holarctic region and Thick-billed Raven of the highlands of Ethiopia, the 40 or so members of this genus occur on...
s and
jayThe jays are several species of medium-sized, usually colorful and noisy, passerine birds in the crow family Corvidae. The names jay and magpie are somewhat interchangeable, and the evolutionary relationships are rather complex...
s than it is to the European Robin. It belongs to the family
PetroicidaeThe bird family Petroicidae includes roughly 45 species in about 15 genera. All are endemic to Australasia or nearby areas. For want of a more accurate common name, the family is often described as the Australasian robins. The family occurs in New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand and numerous Pacific...
, commonly called "Australasian robins". The
Red-billed LeiothrixThe Red-billed Leiothrix, Leiothrix lutea, is a member of the Old World babbler family. It is a common cagebird and amongst aviculturists it goes by various names: Pekin Robin, Pekin Nightingale, Chinese Nightingale, Japanese Nightingale, and Japanese Robin, the last two being a misnomer as it is...
(
Leiothrix lutea) is sometimes named "Pekin Robin" by
aviculturalistsAviculture is the practice of keeping and breeding birds and the culture that forms around it. Aviculture is generally focused on not only the raising and breeding of birds, but also on preserving avian habitat, and public awareness campaigns....
. Yet another group of Old World Flycatchers, this time from Africa and Asia is the genus
Copsychus; its members are known as
Magpie-robinThe magpie-robins or shamas are medium-sized insectivorous birds in the genera Copsychus and Trichixos...
s, one of which, the
Oriental Magpie RobinThe Oriental Magpie Robin Copsychus saularis is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but now considered an Old World flycatcher. They are distinctive black and white birds with a long tail that is held upright as they forage on the ground or...
(C. saularis), is the national bird of Bangladesh.
Description
The adult European Robin is 12.5–14.0 cm (5.0–5.5 in) long and weighs 16–22
gThe gram , ; symbol g, is a unit of mass.Originally defined as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure water equal to the cube of the hundredth part of a metre, and at the temperature of melting ice" , a gram is now defined as one one-thousandth of the SI base unit, the kilogram, or...
(9/16–13/16
ozThe ounce is a unit of mass with several definitions, the most commonly used of which are equal to approximately 30 grams. The ounce is used in a number of different systems, including various systems of mass that form part of the imperial and United States customary systems...
), with a wingspan of 20–22 cm (8–9 in). The male and female bear similar plumage; an orange-red breast and face (more strongly coloured in the otherwise similar British subspecies
E. r. mesophilus), lined by a bluish grey on the sides of the neck and chest. The upperparts are brownish, or olive-tinged in British birds, and the belly whitish, while the legs and feet are brown. The bill and eyes are black. Juveniles are a spotted brown and white in colouration, with patches of red gradually appearing.
Vocalisations
The Robin has a fluting, warbling song in the breeding season, when they often sing into the evening, and sometimes into the night, leading some to confuse them with the
NightingaleThe Nightingale , also known as Rufous and Common Nightingale, is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher, Muscicapidae...
(
Luscinia megarhynchos). Nocturnal singing in urban Robins occurs in places that are noisy during the day, suggesting that they sing at night because it is quieter, and their message can propagate through the environment more clearly. Daytime noise outperformed night-time light pollution as a predictor of nocturnal singing activity in urban robins in
SheffieldSheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city has grown from its largely industrial roots to encompass a wider economic base...
, England. Both the male and female sing during the winter, when they hold separate territories, the song then sounding more plaintive than the summer version. The female Robin moves a short distance from the summer nesting territory to a nearby area that is more suitable for winter feeding. The male Robin keeps the same territory throughout the year.
Distribution and habitat
The Robin occurs in Eurasia east to Western
SiberiaSiberia , is the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving as the massive central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, having served in the same capacity previously for the USSR from its beginning, and the Russian Empire beginning in the...
, south to
AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country on the Mediterranean sea, the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area.It is bordered by Tunisia in...
and on the
AtlanticThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek...
islands as far west as the
AzoresThe Azores is a Portuguese archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, about from Lisbon and about from the east coast of North America. The two westernmost Azorean islands actually lie on the North American plate...
and
MadeiraMadeira is a Portuguese archipelago in the mid Atlantic Ocean that lies between and . It is one of the Autonomous regions of Portugal, with Madeira Island and Porto Santo Island being the only inhabited islands...
. It is not found in
IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
. In the south east, it reaches the
CaucasusThe Caucasus or Caucas is a geopolitical region between at the border of Europe and Asia. It is home to the Caucasus Mountains, including Europe's highest mountain ....
range.
BritishGreat Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island. With a population of about 59.6 million people, it is the third most populated island on Earth. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1000 smaller...
Robins are largely resident but a small minority, usually female, migrate to southern
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
during winter, a few as far as
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
.
ScandinaviaScandinavia is a geographical region in northern Europe that includes, and is named after, the Scanian Province. It consists of the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark...
n and
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n Robins migrate to Britain and western Europe to escape the harsher winters. These migrants can be recognised by the greyer tone of the upper parts of their bodies and duller orange breast. The European Robin prefers spruce woods in northern Europe, contrasting with its preference for parks and gardens in the British Isles.
Attempts to introduce the European Robin into Australia and New Zealand in the latter part of the 19th century were unsuccessful. Birds were released around
MelbourneMelbourne is the capital city and most populous city of the State of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne city centre is the anchor of the larger geographical area and statistical division known as the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area – of which Melbourne is...
,
AucklandThe Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with a population approaching 1.4 million residents, percent of the country's population. Demographic trends indicate that it will continue to grow faster than the rest...
,
ChristchurchChristchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area. It is one third the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of Christchurch.The city was named by...
,
WellingtonWellington is the capital of New Zealand, at the southwestern tip of the North Island between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range. The Wellington urban area is the major population centre of the southern North Island and is New Zealand's third most populous urban area with residents. There are ...
and
DunedinDunedin , , is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the region of Otago. It has the largest council boundary area of any New Zealand city, and is the hub of the fifth-largest urban area...
by various local
Acclimatisation societiesAcclimatisation societies were societies created in order to enrich the fauna of a region with animals and plants from around the world. The first such society was La Societé Zoologique d'Acclimatation founded in Paris in 1854 by Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. Such societies spread quickly around...
, with none becoming established. There was a similar outcome in North America as birds failed to establish after being released in
Long IslandLong Island is an island located in southeastern New York, United States, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City, and two of which are mainly suburban...
, New York in 1852,
OregonOregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
in 1889-92, and the
Saanich PeninsulaThe Saanich Peninsula is located north of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It is bounded by the Saanich Inlet on the west, and various straits of the Gulf of Georgia on the east, chiefly Haro Strait The exact southern boundary of what is referred to as the "Saanich Peninsula" is somewhat fluid...
in
British ColumbiaBritish Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is famed for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . In 1871, it became the sixth province of Canada.The capital of British Columbia is Victoria, the 15th largest metropolitan region in Canada...
in 1908-10.
Behaviour
The Robin is diurnal, although has been reported to be active hunting insects on moonlit nights or near artificial light at night. Well known to British and Irish gardeners, it is relatively unafraid of people and likes to come close when anyone is digging the soil, in order to look out for
earthwormEarthworm is the common name for the largest members of Oligochaeta in the phylum Annelida. In classical systems they were placed in the order Opisthopora, on the basis of the male pores opening posterior to the female pores, even though the internal male segments are anterior to the female...
s and other food freshly turned up; when the gardener stops for a break the robin might use the handle of the spade as a lookout point. Indeed, the robin is considered by many to be a gardener's friend and for various
folkloreFolklore is the body of expressive culture, including stories, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, customs, and so forth within a particular population comprising the traditions of that culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which...
reasons the robin would never be harmed. In continental Europe on the other hand, robins were hunted and killed as most other small birds and are more wary. Robins also approach large wild animals, such as wild boar and other animals which disturb the ground, to look for any food that might be brought to the surface. In autumn and winter, robins will supplement their usual diet of terrestrial invertebrates, such as spiders, worms and insects, with berries and fruit. They will also eat seed mixtures placed on bird-tables.
Male Robins are noted for their highly aggressive territorial behaviour. They will ruthlessly attack other males that stray into their territories, and have been observed attacking other small birds without apparent provocation. Such attacks sometimes lead to fatalities, accounting for up to 10% of adult Robin deaths in some areas.
Because of high mortality in the first year of life, a Robin has an average
life expectancyLife expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is denoted by e
x, which means the average number of subsequent years of life for someone now aged x, according to a particular mortality experience...
of 1.1 years; however, once past its first year it can expect to live longer and one Robin has been recorded as reaching the age of 12 years. Predators include the domestic cat, which kills 15 times as many birds as do birds of prey such as the owl or sparrowhawk. A spell of very low temperature in winter may also result in significant mortality.
Breeding
Robins may choose a wide variety of sites for building a nest, in fact anything which can offer some form of depression or hole may be considered. As well as the usual crevices, or sheltered banks, odder objects include pieces of machinery, barbecues, bicycle handlebars, bristles on upturned brooms, discarded kettles, watering cans, flower pots and even hats. The nest is composed of moss, leaves and grass, with finer grass, hair and feathers for lining. Two or three clutches of five or six eggs are laid throughout the breeding season, which commences in March in
BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
and
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
. The eggs are a cream, buff or white speckled or blotched with reddish-brown colour, often more heavily so at the larger end. When juvenile birds fly from the nests they are mottled brown in colour all over and do not have a red breast. After two to three months out of the nest, the juvenile bird grows some reddish feathers under its chin and over a similar period this patch gradually extends to complete the adult appearance.
Cultural depictions
The robin features prominently in English folklore, and that of northweastern France, but much less so in other parts of Europe. It was held to be a storm-cloud bird and sacred to
ThorThor is the red-haired and bearded god of thunder in Germanic mythology and Germanic paganism, and its subsets: Norse paganism, Anglo-Saxon paganism and Continental Germanic paganism....
, the god of thunder, in
Norse mythologyNorse, North Germanic, or Scandinavian mythology comprises the myths of North Germanic pre-Christian religion.Most of the written sources for Norse mythology were assembled in medieval Iceland in Old Norse, notably as the Edda....
. More recently, it has become strongly associated with
ChristmasChristmas , also referred to as Christmas Day, is an annual holiday celebrated on December 25 that commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. The day marks the beginning of the larger season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days. The nativity of Jesus, which is the basis for the anno Domini...
, taking a starring role on many a
Christmas cardA Christmas card is a greeting card sent as part of the traditional celebration of Christmas in order to convey between people a range of sentiments related to the Christmas season. Christmas cards are usually exchanged during the weeks preceding Christmas Day on December 25 by many people in...
since the mid-19th century. The Robin has also appeared on many Christmas postage stamps. An old
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
folk tale seeks to explain the Robin's distinctive red breast. Legend has it that when
JesusJesus of Nazareth —also known as Jesus Christ or occasionally Jesus the Christ—is the central figure of Christianity. Within most Christian denominations...
was dying on the cross, the Robin, then simply brown in colour, flew to his side and sang into his ear in order to comfort him in his pain. The blood from his wounds stained the Robin's breast, and thereafter all Robins got the mark of Christ's blood upon them. An alternate legend has it that its breast was scorched fetching water for souls in Purgatory. The association with Christmas, however, more probably arises from the fact that postmen in Victorian Britain wore red uniforms and were nicknamed "Robin"; the Robin featured on the Christmas card is an emblem of the postman delivering the card. Robins also feature in the traditional children's tale,
Babes in the WoodBabes in the Wood, also known as Kids of the Wood, is a traditional children's tale, as well as a popular pantomime subject. It has also been the name of some other unrelated works. The expression has passed into common language, referring to inexperienced innocents entering unawares into any...
; the birds cover the dead bodies of the children.
In the 1960s in a highly publicised vote, the Robin was adopted as the national bird of the UK. Unlike other countries, official emblems such as flags and anthems become national by convention and usage (see Union Jack and
God Save The Queen"God Save the Queen", or "God Save the King", is an anthem used in a number of Commonwealth realms. It is the national anthem of the United Kingdom and her territories and dependencies, Norfolk Island, one of the two national anthems of the Cayman Islands and New Zealand and the royal anthem of...
) rather than by vote in
ParliamentA parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French parlement, the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at...
. The Robin was used as a symbol of a Bird Protection Society.
Several
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and
WelshWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
professional
footballAssociation football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players using a spherical ball...
clubs are nicknamed "The Robins"; Bristol City, Swindon Town, Cheltenham Town and, traditionally, Wrexham FC: the nickname is derived from the clubs' home colours being
redRed is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared , and cannot be seen by the naked human eye...
. A small bird is an unusual choice, though it is thought to symbolise agility in darting around the field. In addition to the football club, the
Swindon RobinsThe Swindon Speedway team, also known as the Swindon Robins, are an English Motorcycle Speedway team established in 1949 that competes in the Elite League....
is the full name of the local
SpeedwayMotorcycle speedway, usually referred to as speedway or flat track motorcycle racing , is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit...
promotion. It is also the nickname of the English Rugby League team
Hull Kingston RoversHull Kingston Rovers or Hull KR is a British professional rugby league football club that competes in Super League, having won promotion from National League One in 2006. Their ground is New Craven Park in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire. In Super League 2009 Hull KR play in their traditional...
. The nickname is derived from the club's home colours, of white with a red band, linking to the redbreast of the Robin.
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