The Late Late Bird.

 
The European Robin is often said to be Britain’s favourite bird, probably for two main reasons.

Firstly, they’re one of the major icons of Christmas, featuring prominently on traditional Christmas cards where they bring colour to pictures of snow-laden branches and snowbound landscapes. By extension, this can be interpreted as bringing light into the dark season. Secondly, they’re the gardener’s companion, being smart enough to realise that gardeners expose things that robins like to eat.

They’re the bird that gets closest to people. It was a robin that followed me around for three years, expecting me to provide small piles of oats here, there and everywhere, some of which he would eat himself, and some of which he would take to feed the kids during the breeding season.

What I most like about robins, though, is that they’re the late retirers of the diurnal species. I’ve frequently seen them on the bird table during the winter when it’s been too dark to identify them by any means other than their shape and body language. And now that it’s springtime, they sing late into the dusk when other birds have gone home to roost. Maybe that’s because they’re so proud of their song and like to show it off. It’s the best. For those who missed the earlier post, here’s another clip of the beloved robin in performance: