The robin is a bird that is synonymous with the festive season appearing on everything from Christmas cards, to gifts, cakes, decorations and wrapping paper.
Instantly recognisable due to its red-breast, the robin, or an spideog, can be found all over the country, and is perhaps one of the nation’s favourite birds.
The robin, which is a member of the thrush family, has topped the table in the Irish Garden Bird Survey run by BirdWatch Ireland for several years now, being reported in almost 100% of gardens.
Often referred to as “the gardener’s friend”, the robin is a familiar site when soil is being dug up revealing juicy earthworms.
The birds have been also known to eat from a human’s hand, or tap on a window or door looking for food.
Robin
However, despite being perceived as a friendly and almost tame common garden bird due to its apparent tolerance of humans, the robin has a ferociously territorial side when it comes to its own kind.
“The male and the female look exactly the same. So it’s difficult to know the difference between them, and the robins themselves don’t know the difference,” Irish biologist Éanna Ní Lamhna told Agriland .
“If they see another robin, they’re not sure and they assume it’s another male. They are extremely aggressive birds. They can’t put up with another robin on their territory.
“Robins will actually kill each other, they’re quite aggressive towards other robins, so what they’re doing on Christmas cards, I do not know, because we send cards with peace and goodwill to all men and we have a robin sitting on it,” Ní Lamhna laughed.
The robin is very obvious at this time of year, because it is the one of the few birds that sings in the wintertime.
In the spring, male robins can be heard singing as part of the dawn chorus as they attempt to attract a female, while warning off any other rival males.
Robins will nest in the cover of ivy and low shrubs away from predators like the magpies, but have also been known to choose some unusual locations to raise their young, including teapots and watering cans.
The bird may also choose to take up residence in a nesting box with a half door as an entrance.
Males breed twice in the summer with the same female, resulting in up to 8-9 chicks in one season, which keeps the overall robin population stable.
Once the breeding season is over, male and female robins hold separate territories and, unusually in the bird world, both can be heard singing in the winter.
Festive season
Among the several connections between the robin and the festive season is a link back to Victorian Britain, when Christmas cards began to be mass produced and the “Penny Post” made the postal service available to ordinary people.
At the time, Royal Mail postmen wore red uniforms and earned the nickname “Robin Redbreasts”, therefore it is unsurprising that the bird became a common illustration on Christmas cards, representing those who delivered the card.
There are also strong religious connotations associated with the robin through Christian folklore.
“One account is that the robin pulled the thorn out of Jesus’ head when he was on the cross to remove the pain, and the blood spilled on the robin and this gave it a red breast. It was left with the red breast as a mark of thanks.
“The other was that in the crib, the fire was down to very bad embers and a little robin, who was afraid that it would get cold and the baby [Jesus] would die, fanned the embers with its wings and the embers burst into flames again, and he got scorched on the breast.
“So they’re both Christian emblems, one at the end of life and the one at the beginning of life, and they’re both acts of kindness done by the robin,” Ní Lamhna explained.
The bird has also become a source of great comfort to those who have been bereaved, giving rise to the phrase, “when loved ones are near, robins appear”.
“It’s a lovely bit of consolation for people, and why not? We don’t know everything about the spirit world, and if they feel the robin is embodying the spirit of the person that’s gone and it gives them comfort, that’s a lovely tradition to have,” Ní Lamhna said.
The biologist reminded Agriland readers to feed the birds, not just the robins, over the winter months.
Robins are a big fan of mealworms, but will also feed on scraps and seeds on the ground or a tabletop, rather than a bird feeder.