One of the most aggressive birds you could meet... the truth about the friendly robin redbreast

Zoologists studying its behaviour revealed that a robin will attack anything that remotely resembles another robin in its territory — basically anything displaying a red patch — including stuffed birds (and even headless stuffed birds!), soft toys, or their own reflection in a window, car mirror or windscreen. They will also attack a tuft of red feather. Robins will even fight to the death if necessary.

Thankfully it rarely comes to that, and most intruders can be deterred through song. While we like to think robins sing for joy, ours and their own, they actually use song to defend their territory and tell other robins ‘this place is already occupied’. 

In the northern hemisphere, it is generally just male birds who sing, but the robin is one of the exceptions! Although shorter and less elaborate than the male’s song, it could be said that the female’s song is more chirpy and bright. 

Of course, holding its own territory outside the breeding season means it’s important the female can also sing. Birdsong is a non-contact way of delineating boundaries between territories. 

A powerful singing voice tells your neighbours that you’re still alive, and well-fed and healthy enough to be able to sing, so it’s not worth trying to intrude on your land. Another strong reason for birds to sing is of course to attract a mate. Studies have shown that females often judge potential mates by the quality of their song.

Continuing the line

In late winter, robins roam outside their territories as they try to find a mate, and once they do, nest-building begins, usually in early March but sometimes earlier. A robin’s nest is cup-shaped and made from moss and dead leaves, often lined with animal hair. A friend of mine had a West Highland White and when she discovered an old robin’s nest in her shed, she found it was thickly lined with the white hairs of her terrier.

Robins aren’t fussy about where they nest. They have built their nests in the funniest of places, including empty shoes, hats, or pots, under car bonnets, or even in the pocket of a jacket hanging in a garden shed. Of course, they also make nests in hedges and shrubs, close enough to the ground, among dense vegetation.

Robins can have two, and sometimes three, nests in a year. The female lays between four and six eggs. Only the mother incubates the eggs, for around 14 days until they hatch. But once hatched, both parents work together to feed the chicks for another two weeks until they’re ready to leave the nest. 

Of course, their flight feathers may not have fully grown in at this time, so sometimes they leave the nest before they are able to fly. Young robins are a similar size and shape to their parents, but their colours are very different, being speckled brown, and this probably helps to offer camouflage as they hop in and out of shrubbery in these early days of life. 

Only about half of robin eggs laid will survive to adulthood, and the average lifespan in the wild is around two years.

Finding food

While common in woodland, parks and gardens, robins are also successful in most Irish habitats, probably due in no small part to their feistiness and opportunistic attitude. Throughout summer they concentrate of invertebrates, worms, insects and spiders. 

In winter, when insects are hard to come by, they concentrate on berries, fruit and seeds, including from garden bird tables. Their fluffed-up coat of feathers can make them look fat and well-fed, but they do this to help keep warm and underneath all those feathers they might be underweight, which can be fatal at this time of year. 

A robin can’t hang on your birdfeeders like the tits and finches, so you’ll have to choose a flat surface or the ground if you want to feed robins.

The robin’s habit of following humans around the garden probably evolved long ago, when this opportunistic species learned to follow animals like wild boar. While the omnivorous boar digs in the ground for food — such as roots, tubers, bulbs, and insects like leatherjackets — a quick robin could grab a handy worm.

When you see a robin watching and waiting in your garden, you may see it as either friendly or fierce, but I think a cold winter’s day is always warmed by their cheery presence.

Juanita Browne has written a number of wildlife books, including My First Book of Irish Animals and The Great Big Book of Irish Wildlife.