Counting Ireland's beloved garden robins
About With Is Many Friendly, Bird Irish Territorial Folklore And The Filled Stories Inquisitive
MANY of the Christmas cards that are now being dropped into letter boxes countrywide have images of the red-breasted Robin, a revered little bird in Irish folklore.
Over two million pairs breed countrywide every year in habitats that range from trees and hedges to cracks in walls, and even tree stumps, boxes and garments hanging in garden sheds.
Robins have a special place in the memories of Irish people, especially at Christmas. They are regarded as the most blessed of birds and treated with great respect.
The story goes that the robin is said to have picked a thorn from the head of the dying Christ on the cross and that a drop of blood fell on its breast, the mark of which remains.
Another account has it that the popular bird got its distinctive coloured breast after it was singed red while fanning the embers of a dying fire in the stable at Bethlehem to give the Holy Family warmth.
Other traditions maintain the colour relates to Victorian Britain when Royal Mail ‘posties’ were nicknamed ‘robins’ because of their red-coloured uniforms.
Irish folklore is filled with many stories about the friendly, inquisitive and territorial bird. Killing one was said to be bad luck for the culprit. And in some parts of the country a robin entering a house was deemed to be a signal of an imminent the death in the family.
Not all folklore puts the robin in such precarious situations. They are also often associated with happiness, joy, good luck, strong marriages, re-birth and the ending of an old phase with the promise of something new.
The well-known phrase, 'When robins appear, loved ones are near', alludes to the belief that the robin is a messenger. When robins are seen, some people take comfort that loved ones are at peace.
What is beyond dispute, however, is the popularity of the bird in Ireland, as shown in the country’s longest-running and most popular citizen science survey.
Last year, the Irish Garden Survey organised by BirdWatch Ireland, involved 1,600 households, who kept note of each bird species visiting their gardens during a 13-week period between December and February.
The results revealed that the robin maintained its place at the top of the list, being present in 96% of gardens. Blackbird and Blue Tit followed in second and third place, with 94% and 91% sightings respectively.
However, all three species appeared in fewer gardens than at any point in the last 30 years due to the mild winter weather conditions, which reduced birds’ need for garden feeders.
“As the Irish countryside changes, gardens are becoming increasingly important havens for many species, and it is vital for us to know how their populations are faring.
"The Irish Garden Bird Survey does this not only by giving us a good idea of how our garden birds themselves are doing, but also an indication of how the environment is faring in general,” Birdwatch Ireland stated.
Sponsored by Ballymaloe, the survey also improves monitoring at national level and allows for a greater focus on conservation issues facing individual species.
“We often get emails from people early in the winter wondering where their garden birds are, but last winter people all over the country were commenting on how quiet their gardens were,” said Brian Burke, co-ordinator of the Irish Garden Bird Survey.
Numbers of robin redbreasts are now the sixth most-seen bird species in British gardens. While they are often depicted in snowy landscapes on Christmas cards, it is the milder winters of recent times that are thought to be the key to their proliferation.
Some 539,820 robins were spotted out of 9.7 million birds seen overall. Only sparrows, blue tits, starlings, woodpigeons and blackbirds were sighted more often.
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