Robin

Erithacus rubecula

This is not the American Robin but quite a small upright chat of Europe, near Asia and North Africa. It is basically a browny-grey bird with a very prominent orange face, throat and breast - after the moult from the spotty first plumage. These are its badges and it is very territorial throughout the year (except during the moult in the late summer).

A perky, upright bird it feeds on the ground by scanning for the insects and other arthropods it feeds on. It is a bird of woods, scrubland, gardens but not of totally open ground. It is famously tame in Britain but not elsewhere (yet) probably as the birds will have been killed for food in relatively recent times. Northern birds are migratory and even in Southern Britain a few migrate. Over 6,000,000 breeding pairs in Britain and Ireland.

The following Bird On! picture is available:

Robin (Watercolour by Robert Gillmor)

Length	140 mm
Closed wing	72 mm
Weight	17 gms

A Bird On! Sketch by Chris Mead
Copyright © 1996 by Jacobi Jayne & Company and Chris Mead