The robin is a chicken that’s synonymous with the festive season showing on every part from Christmas playing cards, to presents, desserts, decorations and wrapping paper.
Instantly recognisable as a result of its red-breast, the robin, or an spideog, will be discovered everywhere in the nation, and is probably one of many nation’s favorite birds.
The robin, which is a member of the thrush household, has topped the desk within the Irish Garden Bird Survey run by BirdWatch Ireland for a number of years now, being reported in almost 100% of gardens.
Often known as “the gardener’s friend”, the robin is a well-recognized website when soil is being dug up revealing juicy earthworms.
The birds have been additionally identified to eat from a human’s hand, or faucet on a window or door searching for meals.
Robin
However, regardless of being perceived as a pleasant and almost tame widespread backyard chicken as a result of its obvious tolerance of people, the robin has a ferociously territorial aspect relating to its personal form.
“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 instructed Agriland .
“If they see one other robin, they’re unsure and so they assume it’s one other male. They are extraordinarily aggressive birds. They can’t put up with one other 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 could be very apparent at the moment of yr, as a result of it’s the one of many few birds that sings within the wintertime.
In the spring, male robins will be heard singing as a part of the daybreak refrain as they try to draw a feminine, whereas warning off some other rival males.
Robins will nest within the cowl of ivy and low shrubs away from predators just like the magpies, however have additionally been identified to decide on some uncommon areas to boost their young, together with teapots and watering cans.
The chicken may additionally select to take up residence in a nesting field with a half door as an entrance.
Males breed twice in the summertime with the identical feminine, leading to as much as 8-9 chicks in a single season, which retains the general robin inhabitants steady.
Once the breeding season is over, female and male robins maintain separate territories and, unusually within the chicken world, each will be heard singing within the winter.
Festive season
Among the a number of connections between the robin and the festive season is a hyperlink again to Victorian Britain, when Christmas playing cards started to be mass produced and the “Penny Post” made the postal service available to extraordinary individuals.
At the time, Royal Mail postmen wore pink uniforms and earned the nickname “Robin Redbreasts”, subsequently it’s unsurprising that the chicken turned a standard illustration on Christmas playing cards, representing those that delivered the cardboard.
There are additionally sturdy spiritual connotations related to the robin by way of Christian folklore.
“One account is that the robin pulled the thorn out of Jesus’ head when he was on the cross to take away the ache, and the blood spilled on the robin and this gave it a pink breast. It was left with the pink breast as a mark of thanks.
“The different was that within the crib, the fireplace was right down to very unhealthy embers and slightly robin, who was afraid that it might get chilly and the newborn [Jesus] would die, fanned the embers with its wings and the embers burst into flames once more, and he received 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 defined.
The chicken has additionally turn out to be a supply of nice consolation to those that 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 mentioned.
The biologist reminded Agriland readers to feed the birds, not simply the robins, over the winter months.
Robins are an enormous fan of mealworms, however may even feed on scraps and seeds on the bottom or a tabletop, quite than a chicken feeder.
