Robin's Winter Song

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Another theory relates to the fact that the Robin is not the cute, friendly bird of Christmas card fame, but a rather aggressive species that readily enters into disputes. Could it be that after spending several weeks skulking and hiding away while it went through the moult, the Robin feels the need to reassert itself over its neighbours and the now adult-feathered first-year birds? Winter singing is unusual in British birds, but the Robin’s melancholic song is heard throughout the country as the temperatures drop. With other birds quiet, it is a great time to really get to know the song of this common bird. It is a melodic, fluty song, beautiful and sad at the same time. With everything else quiet, the beauty of the song seems extra special. One fable holds that when the baby Jesus was in his manger, the fire lit to keep him warm blazed up very strongly. A brown bird placed himself between the fire and Jesus, fluffed out his feathers, but got its breast scorched by the fire, and the Robin was the result. Robin meets different woodland animals and birds who are preparing for winter. Owl advises him to stay warm and snug and we love the way that an uncertain Robin cuddles up with Bear. We share Robin’s amazement when he sees the wintery landscape and love the double spread which shows animals playingin the snow and discovering the wonders of a snowy forest, their excitement mirrors that of a child who sees and experiences snow for the first time.

Robins are particularly associated with Christmas. Investigate with the children the various ways that the robin is depicted at Christmas: on cards, calendars, wrapping paper and decorations. Make a display of these. So why are they singing? Well, as in the spring, it’s to establish a territory, but, unlike in spring, they’re not singing to attract a mate to it. This territory is not for sharing. The Robin is well known for being a belligerent defender of its territory, and in early autumn they’re at their most aggressive as they compete with one another to establish the ownership of their autumn and winter quarters. ROBINS DEFENDING THEIR TERRITORY Most of our breeding Robins are sedentary in nature, although some will disperse to breed in a new area. Some individuals appear to undertake migratory movements and many Robins from colder countries like Scandinavia and Finland will pass through Britain in the autumn en route to Iberia or North Africa. Some of these birds will remain in Britain for the winter. Robins are happy to use bird boxes, but they do prefer large entrances–about 10 centimetres high. Spotted flycatchers, wagtails and wrens will also make use of a birdhouse with such a large opening. You can find more tips on the materials and dimensions for your birdhouse, and how best to clean it in our article on building your own bird box. How can I support robins even more? It is a theory put forward by many, and similar behaviour is seen in other species in different parts of the world at the end of the summer, but if this is so, why is it that the Robin is virtually unique among British birds in this?Another story is that a Robin pulled a thorn from the crown of Christ while he was on the cross, and that it was Christ’s blood that created the bird’s red breast. One thing for certain is that there will be a reason – small birds are not going to expend vast amounts of energy flying hundreds of miles on a whim. It goes to show that we have lots to learn when it comes to bird behaviour, even for our most familiar species. Ocr tesseract 4.1.1 Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_detected_script_conf 0.8923 Ocr_module_version 0.0.11 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA-NS-2000215 Openlibrary_edition It is estimated that 10% of all adult Robin deaths are caused by other Robins, and it is when the birds are establishing their autumn and spring territories that these fatalities are most likely to occur. A Robin singing on a cold morning may well be music to our ears, but it can be very dangerous for other Robins nearby. Talk about anything that is puzzling eg the idea of birds flying south or bears having ‘one long sleep’ in the winter

urn:lcp:robinswintersong0000bart:epub:f0c9219e-f47c-4d20-aa3d-d50be71f697c Foldoutcount 0 Identifier robinswintersong0000bart Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t3xt5tn51 Invoice 1652 Isbn 9781408859148 In fact, the word ‘move’ doesn’t really do this justice; a better word would be migrate. We don’t tend to think of our humble Robin as a migratory bird, but in the east of its range it is a true migrant, with Scandinavian, eastern European and Russian birds all leaving their breeding areas for milder winter ones. It won’t be long before the species that won last year’s Vote for Britain’s National Bird will be staring at you from the corner of your living-room. The Robin, quite possibly hopping around in the sort of snowfall we rarely see in December, and maybe even sporting a Santa hat, will be the star of a good many of the Christmas cards that you receive.Make a robin finger puppet for your child to hold while you re read the story. Encourage them to join in with what the robin says and thinks – eg “ What are you doing?” , “Winter must be very scary!” Re-tell the story In extreme weather, several Robins can be seen feeding in the one spot. This suggests that the setting up of territory in the autumn has nothing to do with food provision.