🎅 Cock Robin, Oak leaf Christmas card delivery in West Yorkshire! 😅 December, 23, 2022
A portrait of the ‘UK's national bird, an adult Robin caught out and about in West Yorkshire collecting nesting material with an Oak leaf in its bill, April 14th 2022.
Many thanks for visiting my Flickr pages...Your visits, interest, comments and kindness to 'fave' my photos is very much appreciated, Steve.
Why do we associate Robins with Christmas?
The legends of our Christmas Robin…
If you have ever wondered why red Robins are associated with Christmas, postmen in Victorian Britain were nicknamed “Robins” because of their red-breasted coloured uniforms. So the Robin on the Christmas card came to represent the postman who delivered the card yet there are links that pre date this explanation.
Legend has it that the Robin’s redbreast provides a direct link to Christianity as the Robin pulled a thorn from the crown of Christ whilst he was on the cross and sang to relieve his suffering, it was Christ’s blood that created the Robins red breast.
Other folklore indicates that when the baby Jesus was in his manger in the stable, the fire which had been lit to keep him warm started to blaze up very strongly. A brown Robin, noticing that Mary had been distracted by the inn-keeper’s wife, placed himself between the fire and the face of baby Jesus. The Robin fluffed out its feathers to protect the baby, but in so-doing its breast was scorched by the fire. This red plumage was then passed onto future generations of Robins.
Have you noticed a Robin’s red-breast is actually orange? The bird was named before the English language had a word for the colour ‘orange’. Many things that were really orange were called red instead even though we did have the word for ‘orange’ as in the fruit. The colour orange was not named as a colour in English until the 16th century. The name for the colour comes from the fruit.
Our affection for the Robin was cemented in 1960 when it was voted our national bird. Christmas Robins will forever be commemorated on Christmas cards so let's hope they remain a common sight in our gardens for future generations to appreciate their fabled history. Garden bird notes.
Notes:-
The Robin is the most familiar and most loved of all our garden birds. Indeed, even folk not especially interested in birds will still talk about ‘their’ Robin in their garden. Actually though, it’s the predictable, tame and trusting nature of Robins which fools people into thinking it’s the same bird they see year-after-year, when in fact it’s almost certainly a different individual – Robins have an average lifespan of only around one year (domestic cats are their biggest predator) and about one in four never even reach the age of one. Both male and female adult Robins have the same distinct red breast and can’t be confused with any other UK bird, though youngsters have a speckled brown breast. Interestingly, the behaviour we see in Robins on our shores is very different to mainland Europe, where they’re a shy and secretive species of the forest.
Robin diet and food
Small worms, insects, insect larvae and spiders make up much of the diet, plus also seeds, soft fruit and berries in the winter months. In the garden, suggested foods for bird table feeding are: Sunflower Heart Chips, Chopped Peanuts, Robin and Friends Seed Mix, plus Live Mealworms – especially in the breeding season as adult birds will feed them to their young.
Robin nesting and breeding habits
Nests are nearly always built in some sort crevice, hole, or tucked behind something. So walls, dead trees, banks, piles of logs, in climbing plants against a wall or fence etc. Open-fronted nest boxes will be used but only if they’re well hidden – e.g. in a climbing wall plant. The nest is usually close to the ground or even on it. The female Robin takes care of the nest building, which is a neat cup made up of dead grass, leaves and moss, then lined with hair. There are two, sometimes three, broods per season, with 4-6 eggs in the clutch which the female alone incubates. The male bird provides much of the female’s food during nest building, egg laying and the incubation period.
Behaviour traits of Robins
The Robin’s territorial instincts are the most notable aspect of the species’ behaviour: Firstly, resident birds will hold their territories for a whole year (very rare for any species of bird), with the mated pair defending their territory in the breeding season (an area usually about 0.55 of a hectare), then male and female birds defending smaller and separate territories in the autumn and early and mid-winter months. This strong territorial behaviour is the reason why Robins will sing outside of the breeding season (albeit the song outside the breeding season is different and not as strong), whereas most other species of songbird don’t (because they have no reason to). Also of note is the way that a Robin will often appear close to you when you start a gardening job such as digging or clearing up leaves, and will then follow you around the garden as you work. Of course it’s doing this because your activity is uncovering food such as worms and insects. This behaviour reflects how the species has adapted differently in the UK to get value from human habitation, whereas in mainland Europe Robins are shy and secretive birds of woodland and forest only, vine house farm notes.
🎅 Cock Robin, Oak leaf Christmas card delivery in West Yorkshire! 😅 December, 23, 2022
A portrait of the ‘UK's national bird, an adult Robin caught out and about in West Yorkshire collecting nesting material with an Oak leaf in its bill, April 14th 2022.
Many thanks for visiting my Flickr pages...Your visits, interest, comments and kindness to 'fave' my photos is very much appreciated, Steve.
Why do we associate Robins with Christmas?
The legends of our Christmas Robin…
If you have ever wondered why red Robins are associated with Christmas, postmen in Victorian Britain were nicknamed “Robins” because of their red-breasted coloured uniforms. So the Robin on the Christmas card came to represent the postman who delivered the card yet there are links that pre date this explanation.
Legend has it that the Robin’s redbreast provides a direct link to Christianity as the Robin pulled a thorn from the crown of Christ whilst he was on the cross and sang to relieve his suffering, it was Christ’s blood that created the Robins red breast.
Other folklore indicates that when the baby Jesus was in his manger in the stable, the fire which had been lit to keep him warm started to blaze up very strongly. A brown Robin, noticing that Mary had been distracted by the inn-keeper’s wife, placed himself between the fire and the face of baby Jesus. The Robin fluffed out its feathers to protect the baby, but in so-doing its breast was scorched by the fire. This red plumage was then passed onto future generations of Robins.
Have you noticed a Robin’s red-breast is actually orange? The bird was named before the English language had a word for the colour ‘orange’. Many things that were really orange were called red instead even though we did have the word for ‘orange’ as in the fruit. The colour orange was not named as a colour in English until the 16th century. The name for the colour comes from the fruit.
Our affection for the Robin was cemented in 1960 when it was voted our national bird. Christmas Robins will forever be commemorated on Christmas cards so let's hope they remain a common sight in our gardens for future generations to appreciate their fabled history. Garden bird notes.
Notes:-
The Robin is the most familiar and most loved of all our garden birds. Indeed, even folk not especially interested in birds will still talk about ‘their’ Robin in their garden. Actually though, it’s the predictable, tame and trusting nature of Robins which fools people into thinking it’s the same bird they see year-after-year, when in fact it’s almost certainly a different individual – Robins have an average lifespan of only around one year (domestic cats are their biggest predator) and about one in four never even reach the age of one. Both male and female adult Robins have the same distinct red breast and can’t be confused with any other UK bird, though youngsters have a speckled brown breast. Interestingly, the behaviour we see in Robins on our shores is very different to mainland Europe, where they’re a shy and secretive species of the forest.
Robin diet and food
Small worms, insects, insect larvae and spiders make up much of the diet, plus also seeds, soft fruit and berries in the winter months. In the garden, suggested foods for bird table feeding are: Sunflower Heart Chips, Chopped Peanuts, Robin and Friends Seed Mix, plus Live Mealworms – especially in the breeding season as adult birds will feed them to their young.
Robin nesting and breeding habits
Nests are nearly always built in some sort crevice, hole, or tucked behind something. So walls, dead trees, banks, piles of logs, in climbing plants against a wall or fence etc. Open-fronted nest boxes will be used but only if they’re well hidden – e.g. in a climbing wall plant. The nest is usually close to the ground or even on it. The female Robin takes care of the nest building, which is a neat cup made up of dead grass, leaves and moss, then lined with hair. There are two, sometimes three, broods per season, with 4-6 eggs in the clutch which the female alone incubates. The male bird provides much of the female’s food during nest building, egg laying and the incubation period.
Behaviour traits of Robins
The Robin’s territorial instincts are the most notable aspect of the species’ behaviour: Firstly, resident birds will hold their territories for a whole year (very rare for any species of bird), with the mated pair defending their territory in the breeding season (an area usually about 0.55 of a hectare), then male and female birds defending smaller and separate territories in the autumn and early and mid-winter months. This strong territorial behaviour is the reason why Robins will sing outside of the breeding season (albeit the song outside the breeding season is different and not as strong), whereas most other species of songbird don’t (because they have no reason to). Also of note is the way that a Robin will often appear close to you when you start a gardening job such as digging or clearing up leaves, and will then follow you around the garden as you work. Of course it’s doing this because your activity is uncovering food such as worms and insects. This behaviour reflects how the species has adapted differently in the UK to get value from human habitation, whereas in mainland Europe Robins are shy and secretive birds of woodland and forest only, vine house farm notes.