Erithacus rubecula - a robin red breast

I braved the garden again this afternoon, after sorting some desk work and arrangements. I had spotted many different garden birds milling about the feeders earlier in the day, but by the time I had dressed appropriately and ventured out to the cabin they all seemed to have gone away.

There were a trio of long tailed tits performing acrobatics with one particular tiny ball of feathers hanging upside down using only one of its one claws, whilst trying to eat a large seed from its other foot. A nuthatch mooched about somewhat distractedly, while a bullfinch waited its turn to alight on the elder tree to reach the feeder hanging from it.

I wandered to the bottom of the garden and even took a picture of the blue sky which appeared briefly between bits of cloud, as it seemed any colour would be worth blipping. I even thought I saw the tail feathers of a bird disappearing into the large hole in the a dead part of the ash tree on the other side of our boundary. I waited for it to appear, and minutes later with nothing in sight I began to think I might have imagined it. I'd spotted the large hole in the trunk some months ago, and wondered what bird might be using it as a nest, as it has definitely been hollowed out recently and the edges of the hole are all clean with bare wood exposed. I shall have to spend many hours sitting and watching, which will be very pleasurable once the spring weather finally arrives.

On the way back up the garden, I noticed this robin having a gander at me, standing on this bit of old iron fencing that our neighbour has added to her garden. At least there was a bit of colour in the scene and robin is always good company.


The European Robin, most commonly known in Anglophone Europe simply as the Robin, is a small insectivorous passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family, but is now considered to be a chat.

The distinctive orange breast of both sexes contributed to the European Robin's original name of redbreast (orange as the name of a colour was unknown in English until the sixteenth century, by which time the fruit of that name had been introduced). In the fifteenth century, when it became popular to give human names to familiar species, the bird came to be known as Robin redbreast, which was eventually shortened to Robin. Other older English names for the bird include Ruddock and Robinet. In American literature of the late 19th century, this robin was frequently called the English Robin.

Well known to British and Irish gardeners, it is relatively unafraid of people and likes to come close when anyone is digging the soil, in order to look out for earthworms and other food freshly turned up. Indeed, the robin is considered to be a gardener's friend and for various folklore reasons the robin would never be harmed. In continental Europe on the other hand, robins were hunted and killed as with most other small birds, and are more wary. Robins also approach large wild animals, such as wild boar and other animals which disturb the ground, to look for any food that might be brought to the surface. In autumn and winter, robins will supplement their usual diet of terrestrial invertebrates, such as spiders, worms and insects, with berries and fruit. They will also eat seed mixtures placed on bird-tables.

from Wiki