Thursday 3 February 2011

Return of the Robins

If we had done our 'big garden birdwatch survey' at 10am on Sunday instead of 3pm on Saturday then there would have been different results - for a start there would have been at least 10 goldfinches in the garden and we would have recorded two robins:
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These are the first robins to visit the garden for a long time. Interestingly, they are fiercely territorial, yet these two seemed to tolerate each other.  Unfortunately male and female robins look identical, so it's not possible to tell if this is a potential breeding pair or if they were just migrants stopping off.
Apparently, robins can't visually identify each others gender either and the only way a male knows another robin is a female is through it's response to a territorial display.

2 comments:

  1. This robin is one of the few European birds whose song I can recognize in British TV shows I see here in the US. A beautiful little bird with a song that has an ethereal quality! Is it uncommon in your area?

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  2. Hi Anne,
    The European Robin has one of the most distinctive songs and is always a pleasure to hear.
    They don't seem to be uncommon in the area, I saw four of them on a short walk in nearby countryside on Monday. They were just uncommon in our garden, so it's a pleasure to see they've returned.

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