Devon Wildlife Trust The much-loved robin is a garden favourite and one of our most familiar birds, adorning Christmas cards every year. It is very territorial, however, and will defend its post with surprising ferocity.
The robin is one of the most familiar birds of the UK, regularly visiting gardens. Robins are also common in parks, scrub and woodland, making their presence known with a loud, territorial song. They sing from prominent perches right through the winter, when both males and females hold territories; indeed, they are fiercely territorial, driving off intruders and even fighting. During the breeding season, the female is allowed into the male's territory where she sets up a nest of dead leaves, moss and hair. Nests often crop up in the oddest of places, such as plant pots, old wellies and shelves, but Ivy and other shrubs are their natural choice.
How to Identify
The robin really is unmistakeable: brown above, with a white belly and a famously red breast. Young robins are mottled gold and brown, and do not have a red breast.
RSPB The UK's favourite bird - with its bright red breast it is familiar throughout the year and especially at Christmas! Males and females look identical, and young birds have no red breast and are spotted with golden brown. Robins sing nearly all year round and despite their cute appearance, they are aggressively territorial and are quick to drive away intruders. They will sing at night next to street lights.
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/robin/
Devon Birds: Search the Devon Birds website for recent sightings of Robins in Devon.
Robin near South Molton 18th Jan 2020 (Photo Grant Sherman)
Wikipedia: The European robin (Erithacus rubecula), known simply as the robin or robin redbreast in the British Isles, is a small insectivorous passerine bird that belongs to the chat subfamily of the Old World flycatcher family. About 12.5–14.0 cm (5.0–5.5 inches) 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.
The term robin is also applied to some birds in other families with red or orange breasts. These include the American robin (Turdus migratorius), a thrush, and the Australasian robins of the family Petroicidae, the relationships of which are unclear.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_robin
National Biodiveristy Network Erithacus rubecula
Everyone knows the bird on the English Christmas card. European robins may look cute but they are not very tolerant. They can be very aggresive when defending their large territory. They will stick out their chests, shake their body back and forth and eventually assault their competitor with their beaks. They mark off their territory by singing. Their pearly song can be heard throughout the year: a kind of tinkling waterfall of whistled tones. It's not just the males that mark the territory while singing, the females sing just as loudly.
https://species.nbnatlas.org/species/NHMSYS0000530739
eBird: Common to fairly common in wooded habitats, gardens, hedges in farmland, and heathland, usually fairly near cover. Hops perkily on the ground, pausing to look around, when often flicks wings and cocks tail. Also feeds by dropping to the ground from low perches, snatching up prey and flying back up to a shady perch. Plumage distinctive, with bright orangey face and breast (easily hidden when facing away); juvenile in summer very different, with bold pale buffy spotting on back and breast.
