Red Breasted Robin: Friendly Garden Visitors

Robin or “Erithacus rubecula” is a redbreast 14cm from beak to tip of tail 5 to 9cm high bird. The robin enjoys popularity with man unrivalled by any other species. A familiar visitor at the bird table in winter and constant gardening companion, even nesting in the tool shed, it is a year round bird. This is close to association with man is a special feature of the robin’s relationship with the British. Robins of exactly the same species nest over most  of Europe, but a tendency on the continent to shoot and eat small birds has made robins there generally shy and retiring woodland birds. The robin is a particular favorite among bird lovers; 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 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 16^th century. A Christian link has been attached to the legends because the robin’s red breast was supposedly stained by blood after the bird had been pricked in old books. The adult bird get together as pairs in early January. As they look exactly alike, the sexes can only recognize each other by display and posture. An unmated male singing loudly in his territory will, at first behaves 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. Over a period of some hours, sometimes as much as two days, the bond between the two is built up so that they accept each other. In several species this pair bounding is directly followed by nest building and egg lying. With the robin, pairing is accomplished weeks or even months before any nesting attempt is made. During this time the birds occupy the same territory and recognize each other as mates but do not pay much attention to each other.

As the weather improves the hen bird starts to build her nest, 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 likely sites. One nest was found in a chest of drawers in a tool-shed. The drawer was held closed and the nest at the back was only discovered when the drawer was opened.

Moreover, when she starts to build the nest the female also starts to receive food from the male. This so-called courtship feeding was initially thought to be a ritual designed to reinforce the pair bond between male and female. In fact it is an important source of food for the female one that she almost completely relies upon during incubation. The clutch of white eggs with pale reddish freckling is laid, one egg each day, and the complete clutch is generally 5 to 6 eggs, although up to nine have been recorded. Robins are well famous for making their nests in such unlikely places as kettles, old buckets even the pockets of jackets left in garden sheds. The incubating female loses the feather from her breast and belly and the blood vessels just under the skin enlarge greatly. The bare skin and increased blood supply allow her to transfer heart more efficiently to the eggs.

After two weeks the eggs hatch out and the blind chicks, covered in thin dark down, increasingly dominate the parent’s lives with their enormous appetites. Both adult and young robins feed on insects, spiders and worms. They do not generally eat seeds or berries. About 15 days after hatching these young robins now weighing more than their parents, leave the nest. Two particularly attentive parents were reported by naturalist David Lack. They built their nest in a cart which had to go on a 200 mile round trip just after the young hatched. Undaunted, the adult birds accompanied their off spring, feeding them on the way.

Therefore, when the young birds leave the nest they face two or three days of great danger since they cannot yet fly well. At this stage they have a soft speckled brown plumage with no trace of their parents, red breast. By the beginning of June they start to lose their body feathers and to develop their red breasts growing from the bottom upwards. The wings do not moult but continue to develop until July of the next year when they reach their full size. In its first year, the robin has a one in six chance of survival. Once reach the maturity they proudly displaying its red breast and singing its rich spring song, lays claim to its territory and warns off other birds.

Moreover, once the young are fledged the adult build new nest within the same territory and, unless they are prevented for any reason disturbance by a cat, flooding of the nest in bad weather or thoughtless hedge-cutting, will raise another brood in May. During the summer season for a period of five weeks the adult robins replace their old feathers with new ones they stay in the same area, but make themselves less obvious and less active, concealed in shrubberies and thickets. During this moult the adult robins also fall silent the only time of the year when the robin song is not a feature of countryside.  

As the second brood of young birds acquires its red plumage and the adult birds their replacement plumage, the autumn song starts up. The rich and fruity spring song of the males gives way to the thinner, more piping song of young and old, cock and hen, as each claims its own 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 feedings. Robin migrate each autumn, most stay within a mile or two of their birthplace. So what happened to all these robins? If each pair of adults raises two broods with 5 to 6 young in each, there are six times as many robins at the end of the breeding season as at the start.

A single pair would become almost ten million pairs at the end of 10 years about twice the total of British population of Robins. In fact the majority of them die. As many as a million robins may be killed by cats; while owls, cars, plate glass windows and harsh winters also take their toll. Sadly but naturally of the original pair and their off spring on average only one adult and one youngster survive to breed the following year. Harsh winter weather often provides the greatest danger so millions of people who feed birds leave out all sorts of tidbits even mine meat 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.

Almost all birds are territorial. It is generally during the breeding season that teaches bird defends a home area, and will not tolerate any bird of the same species apart from its male within its territory. Robins are no exception, and like other song birds such as blackbirds and song thrushes they stake but 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.

Moreover, the blackbird singing full of joys in spring seasons, but much more important to itself and other blackbirds. It is saying, this part of my territory keep off, if the message is not understood it may still have to chase off the encroaching birds a sight often seen when disputing birds dart at each other along a lawn or hedgerow without actually making contact. It is both these aggressive fluttering and song patterns that prevent actual fighting unless large numbers of birds are competing for a very small territory.