Robin - A Melodious Bird That Is A Friendly Garden Visitor
The robin is a particular favourite among bird lovers, and everyone enjoys the attentions of this familiar redbreast in the garden during winter. But despite all the efforts made to feed this bird in the harsh weather, thousands perish each year.
The robin enjoys unrivalled popularity being a familiar visitor at the bird table in winter and a constant gardening companion. It has a beautiful melodious song that brings such joy. It is the first song of the dawn chorus, a herald of spring.
Distributed throughout most of Europe are robins of the species Erithacus rubecular. Still, a tendency on the continent to shoot and eat small birds has made robins generally shy and retiring woodland birds there.
The bird's popularity in Britain has built up over the years, and legends about the bad luck incurred by anyone harming a robin go back to the 16th century. According to legend, robins feature on Christmas cards because the robin's red breast represents the blood from Christ's crown of thorns.
Pairing and nesting
The adults get together as pairs in early January. As they look exactly alike, the sexes can only recognise each other by display and posture. An unmated male singing loudly in his territory will initially behave aggressively to any intruding robin. If the intruder is a male, it either retreats or tries to oust the occupier. If the new bird is a female seeking a mate, she persists in approaching the resident male, apparently unimpressed by his threats. Establishing a bond may take hours but could take days.
Nesting and egg-laying may not occur for weeks or even months after bonding. During this time, the birds occupy the same territory and recognise each other as mates but do not pay much attention to each other. Then, the hen bird builds her nest as the weather improves, using moss and dead leaves and lining it with hair. In the natural state, she may choose a rocky crevice or hollow of a tree, most often, a bank or an ivy-covered tree usually well concealed and difficult to find. However, some robins select the most unlikely sites. For example, a chest of drawers in toolsheds or Wellington boots or the pocket of a gardener's jacket hanging from a garage door.
Robin Bird Watercolour Artwork
When she begins to build the nest, the female also starts to receive food from the male. This ritual of courtship feeding seemed to reinforce the pair-bond between male and female robins. Moreover, it is a vital source of food for the female—one that she entirely relies upon during incubation.
The clutch of white eggs, pale with red freckling, is laid, one egg each day, until there are generally five or six eggs, although up to nine are possible.
The robin's autumn song starts as the second brood of young birds acquires its red plumage and the adult birds their replacement plumage. The males' rich spring song gives way to the thinner, more piping song of young and old, cock and hen, as each claims its territory; this is kept, with a few local alterations, through the winter until pairing takes place. In times of real food shortage, territoriality breaks down as all the birds concentrate on feeding.
Although some British robins migrate each autumn, most stay within a mile or two of their birthplace. So what happens to all these robins? The population will be booming if each robin pair produces two broods of five or six chicks each breeding season. A single pair of robins would become almost ten million pairs at the end of ten years, about twice the total British population of robins. Sadly the majority of robins die. On average, only one adult and one youngster survive to breed the following year of the original pair and their offspring. Harsh winter weather often provides the most significant danger, so millions of people who feed birds leave out all sorts of titbits—even mincemeat and grated cheese—to ensure that 'their' robins are the ones to survive. This feeding also encourages the robins to stay in backyards and gardens.
Competing for space
Almost all birds are territorial. Each bird defends a home area during the breeding season and will not tolerate any bird of the same species apart from its mate within its territory. Robins are no exception, and like other songbirds of the same family (such as blackbirds and song thrushes), they stake out quite large claims by their presence at strategic song posts. Other birds restrict themselves to much smaller areas—gannets, for instance, only defend the immediate nest area.
Nobody knows for sure what a blackbird singing on your television aerial is saying. It may seem full of spring's joys, but it may be saying: 'This is part of my territory, keep off'. If the message is not understood, it may still have to chase off the encroaching birds. These aggressive flutterings and song patterns prevent actual fighting—unless large numbers of birds compete for a small territory.
