Winter often brings cold and snow to the uplands of England's Peak District National Park, as this wee European robin surely knows. Here we see it puffing up its plumage to insulate its body against the wintry weather. Unrelated to the American robin, the European robin is commonly known in the British Isles as the robin redbreast. But it's more orange than red, you say? That's because when British people first named it the redbreast, probably in the 1400s, the word 'orange' had not yet been introduced as a color name in the English language. Animals and other things were often named 'red' even when orange or tawny: the red deer, Red Planet, and robin redbreast are all examples. Whatever you decide to call our diminutive friend, we appreciate its bright splash of color on an otherwise bleak wintry day.
This weekend, around half a million people in the UK are expected to take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch, and it's likely that many will spy European robins, which are widely distributed across the British Isles. One of the world's largest wildlife surveys, the Big Garden Birdwatch has been sponsored by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) for over 40 years. Participants spend just one hour in a garden, local park, or even on an apartment balcony and record the highest number of each bird species they see. By comparing data trends over the years, the RSPB can monitor the health of bird populations and better understand the challenges faced by wildlife.
The European robin, known simply as the robin or robin redbreast in Ireland and Britain, is a small insectivorous passerine bird that belongs to the chat subfamily of the Old World flycatcher family. About 12.5–14.0 cm in length, the male and female are similar in colouration, with an orange breast and face lined with grey, brown upper-parts and a whitish belly. It is found across Europe, east to Western Siberia and south to North Africa; it is sedentary in most of its range except the far north..
Scientific name: Erithacus rubecula
Biological rank: Species · Genus
Higher classification: Erithacus
Length: 4.72 inch – 5.51 inch
Clutch size: 5 – 6
Weight: 0.04 pound – 0.05 pound